August 2016

As a full-time musician, this space was filled with the happenings from my last gig or the eager excitement about my next one. Since going from full-time musician to full-time teacher/mom it’s a space that’s becoming more about navigating the world on my own while raising a boy to become a man. It’s becoming more thoughtful, more reflective, and I hope more honest, in a keep-it-real-but-don’t-overshare kind of way. So…here goes…

Early on, in the post-apocalyptic phase of divorce, my then 5 year-old son reminded me that we still had a Father in the house. I remember standing in the kitchen when he randomly hit me with that one. It showed me that my faith had not gone unnoticed and that he had started to grow his own. 

That 5 year old is now 12 and these days, faith is less about random comments and more about making sense of random happenings. This summer, that hasn’t been an easy task. Balancing conversations about disparities in a justice system that overwhelmingly tries to serve and protect us all with the very real dangers he may face as a young man is sometimes disheartening. And teaching him to be compassionate and respectful in discourse is un uphill climb when social media and headlines often make a mockery of civility. But being disheartened in difficult times doesn’t mean dropping the ball. It’s about pushing through.

That’s my Big Job now, pushing through, modeling responsible citizenship and maintaing a safe space to talk about fear, fairness, freedoms and keeping the faith. Some of that I’ll do here, some at the homework table. Much of it I’ll do in my corner of the world where trust evolves, faith defeats fear and coming together begins. These are difficult times but if we begin to really talk and listen to one another, I know we can all push through.