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Hope despite uncertainty. That has to remain. It's the only way forward.
I recently found those words in an old notebook from early June 2020. I was distilling down big thoughts around what was all around us then, trying to navigate a path. All the details vaporizing and condensing to a purer version, something that could be bottled up and put in my pocket for later.
I guess it's later. And mantras probably shouldn't live in pockets, and this should probably be one for me.
Hope despite uncertainty. That has to remain. It's the only way forward.
Uncertainty is at the heart of a lot of my anxiety. So maybe I should start thinking about worry being the result of uncertainty, and then work to transform that worry into hope. Like the conservation of matter or energy--nothing is destroyed, just changed. Nothing can be created either. So I've got this certain amount of mental and physical energy and patterns happening in my head, and I can't just make new ones. I need to rearrange it. Rename it. Reframe it.
Typing is easy. Taking it off the page and turning it into a thing I can say that I did is hard. Resistance shows up, darkness hovers, heaviness slows down. All these things work to keep me from being the physicist I need to be in order to make those transformations. And so some days hope is a ghost that seems impossible to reanimate. But it seems that putting words on it will help it stay alive in the first place.
Words keep things alive all the time. This has been a thread in my life that I was unknowingly sewing into the patchiest of quilts for a long time. It's starting to do a better job at keeping the cold out. It's interesting how some part of our brains can fashion tools that another part needs. As if our minds are a bunch of crows with a pile of sticks and trash and one day one of them decides to share.
May your brain-crows share the tools you need right now. We are grateful for you, and appreciate being able to check in via your inbox. If you want to share us with others this holiday season, our merch store has CDs, poetry books, T-shits, tote bags, and handwritten lyrics or poetry.
A link to our latest public music video is below, as well as a link to our Patreon community, where there are videos of new songs, weekly poetry, as well as some recent exciting news we're keeping relatively quiet for a bit.
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(Y es that's Crystal holding Pete's banjo, & we're playing a song that Pete wrote!)
Unreleased new songs like that one, weekly poetry, and some exciting under-the-radar news over at our Patreon.
If you’re interested in joining our little community over at Patreon to receive monthly offerings of what we’re creating and a behind-the-scenes look, there's more info here. |
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Web store is always open!
In addition to our CDs and poetry books, you can order T-shirts, tote bags,
and personalized handwritten lyrics or poetry.
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Dogs and fires can fix a lot of things.
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OE Unedited
This is the section where we share an unedited journal entry or object write.
(Object writing is a daily 10 minute writing exercise, where you write to a particular object in a sensory stream of consciousness kind of way. You can read more about it here.)
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Object write topic: sawhorse
holding up a 2 x 4
waiting to be cut to a shorter length
tailored to what we need
looks like triangles in a line
but really they're squares on a hinge
sawdust and paint
decorate these sawhorses
like a dapple grey mare
hooves in the sunny grass
strong backs doing humans' work
circular saw whirs and cuts the air
as he tests the flow of electricity
and mechanical parts
working order confirmed
he brings the blade to the wood
metal teeth spin to a blur
that bites through the lumber
giving us two pieces
sometimes
we have more than we think we do
if we use the right tools
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UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
***Details/advanced tickets links for all events below can be found here.***
More shows will be showing up, but here's what early next year is starting to look like.
2/1 - 2/5 - Kansas City, MO - Folk Alliance International (Official Showcase 2/2)
2/10 Houston, TX - Burlinghall House Concerts
2/11 Ft. Worth, TX - Southside Preservation Hall
2/12 Norman, OK - The Depot
2/17 Corrales, NM - Old San Ysidro Church
2/18 Santa Fe, NM - Tumbleroot Brewing
2/19 Las Cruces, NM - Cruces Creatives
2/24 San Diego, CA - San Diego Folk Heritage
2/25 Santa Monica, CA - McCabe's
3/3 Chico, CA - Chico Women's Club
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As always, feel free to hit reply and say hello, or let us know if there is something in particular you'd like to see in our newsletters. Thank you for your support!
See you down the road,
Crystal & Pete (who is on a ladder on the side of the house, but sends his love)
www.ordinaryelephant.net
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You’ve bought our albums, you’ve come to our shows, you’ve signed up for our newsletter--you rock! Wondering what other no-cost things you could do to support our music?
- If you’re on Facebook and want to like our page there, you can do that here.
- If you're on Instagram and would like to follow us, you can do that here.
- Think others may enjoy our music and newsletter? Forward them this email or tell them they can check us out and sign up at www.ordinaryelephant.net
- If you use Spotify, and would like to follow us, that's here. And if you make playlists there, consider adding one of our songs if it fits in.
- If you use Pandora, you can create an Ordinary Elephant channel, or if an OE song comes on that you like, give it a thumbs up.
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