Opening

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One of my prayers has been for community. To feel webbed-in. Like many women, I did things as prescribed in a nuclear arrangement and found it exhausting and lonely — when I gave all that up I decided I wanted more. More people, more connections, more ways to feel that I was both offering meaningful service into a collective and receiving more care at the same time. I want to feel that I matter, and that what I have to give is of value to those around me.

But I didn’t know how to make this dream come true.

How do you sign up for community?

This week while I was out playing music, prepping and practicing for my opening gig at Hopmonk Sebastopol, it sort of dawned on me that I have been slowly building communities without realizing it. They are little seedling starting to germinate. With musicians. With other families. With neighbors.

I brought my daughters to the INSIDE/OUT Juneteenth concert at Laguna Labs (phenomenal)… and there I saw all my communities intersecting. Folks who come into the restaurant where I work, other musicians, parents, activists.

There is still more to do to make this seed grow, but my point is that community is not happening for me on discord or apps or platforms, it is happening when I leave my house and bump into people and learn their names and see how they are connected in multiple spaces. It’s happening by being myself too— allowing myself to be attracted to what I’m attracted to and following that as good information.

In that vain, I am playing tonight June 27th at Hopmonk Sebastopol, opening for Main St. It should be a good time. If you’re in the area or down for a drive, come thru >

This video is of Thursday night open mic at Lost Church Santa Rosa, my new favorite place to sing. The room is built for listening and I will be playing a show there August 7th with two of my all time favorite women, Karen Joy Brown and Katie Phillips. That is going to be an EPIC show. Tickets for that show are here >

To seeds geminating!