Since NASA is bombing the moon today, it seems only appropriate that today’s Feel Good Friday be devoted to our favorite (and closest) heavenly body in the sky.  Not to be confused with “There’s a Bathroom on the Right” here’s Creedance Clearwater Revival with “Bad Moon Rising”…

More Feel Good Friday with Ron, Left Wing Cracker, Holly, and more as I find them!

I wanted to make you aware of a great work some dear friends of mine are doing on behalf of their beloved homeland.

The Katinas are a singing group consisting of 5 brothers who are originally from the island of American Samoa.

As you know, American Samoa, Samoa, and neighboring islands were devastated by an 8.3 earthquake and resulting tsunami on September 29th, 2009.  As of this posting, the death toll has reached 183 dead with dozens more injured or missing with entire villages flattened.

The Katinas had family members directly impacted by the devastation.

“Our Dad, 4 sisters, brother and 2 nephews that live there are okay. However, some of our friends and close family members are still missing. We have confirmed news that on of our cousins from the village of Leone (our Mother’s birthplace and place where our Dad pastors) died yesterday in the aftermath of the tsunami.”

The brothers have set up a fund to assist in aid and relief for the victims of this disaster.  They are planning a trip back to their homeland in November, with the goal of taking workers with them to go and help on the ground as well as encourage through their music.

A part of their fundraising efforts will be to put on benefit concerts, with the first one in Brentwood (Nashville), TN tonight (Wednesday, October 7th, 2009) at Fellowship Bible Church 1210 Franklin Rd, Brentwood, TN 37027, (615) 777-8500.  There will be some incredible special guests performing including Michael W. Smith and former American Idol finalist (and Belmont University alum) Melinda Doolittle.  If you live in the Nashville area, it is sure to be a night of great music for a very worthy cause!

Another fundraiser is coming up on October 16th in Vancouver, WA – Crossroads Community Church .

For those of you who have never heard the awesomeness that is The Katinas…here is a clip of these guys singing an impromptu a capella song in the middle of a restaurant a couple of weeks ago…simply amazing!

Finally, here’s a tribute to Samoa the guys put together…very touching & inspiring…

Updated to Add: Tonight’s concert will be live streamed, so you can watch it from wherever you are!!  Go here: http://hope4samoa.com/

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about new beginnings.

Not only where it pertains to starting a new job and moving on from this pit of a funk I have been in for the past 10 months, but also when it comes to matters of redemption for our screw-ups.  It seems like every other day we turn on the news and learn about another public personality being caught in some kind of personal crisis.

This week it’s David Letterman.  I love me some Dave.  His dry sense of humor has always been right down my alley, and the monologue he gave his first night back on the air after 9/11 will no doubt go down as one of broadcasting’s finest moments.  I was bummed this went down, but I’ve gotta say honestly not really because of Letterman’s abuse of power and sexual indiscretions in the work place, but more of how the audience responded to his mea culpa.  I was appalled that they would laugh and applaud throughout his entire speech, even after it became clear he was not doing a comedy bit.  Extortion and abuse of power isn’t a laughing matter, and the audience behaved as if they were a bunch of robots.  It was bizarre and disrespectful.

Meanwhile, I cannot throw stones at Dave.  There is none righteous.  No, not one.  (Romans 3:10, for those following along at home).

We seem to want to go to extremes whenever a moral dilemma arises.  I observed this summer with Michael Jackson’s and Steve McNair’s deaths as one extreme group had them both frying in the pit of hell fire and brimstone (not having any confirmed idea regarding the state of their, ahem, personal relationship with God), while the other side was making jokes about the predicaments they had gotten themselves into that led to their demise.

Pardon me, but I take no joy in another man’s calamity.  It grieves me.

The reason? Because we hurt ourselves and we hurt each other.

Aw, most people have good hearts and don’t mean to…but the fact is, folks, is that we are often propelled by our drives (hunger, sex, greed) and it takes us places we just shouldn’t go.

And, again, we end up hurting ourselves and we hurt each other.

If you don’t believe me, listen to Dave, who summed up his situation with such honesty and transparency:

“Inadvertently, I just wasn’t thinking ahead,” Letterman said. “My thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I’ve gotten myself involved in.”

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/05/david-letterman-apologize_n_310356.html

“Now the other thing is my wife, Regina. She has been horribly hurt by my behavior, and when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it…Either you’re going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you’re going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed, so let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me.“

I think it’s absolutely great that Dave is putting himself out here as an example of a guy who has messed up bad, got busted in a really big way, but is facing it head-on, and is going to work his butt off to make it right by everybody he’s done wrong.

The cynical will say he would have kept living his “creepy” ways had he not been caught (via being extorted for $2 million by a CBS producer), and perhaps that is true…but sometimes getting caught is the best thing that can happen to a person.  Sometimes that is the very thing that saves an addict from destroying themselves.

Here’s what I love about life, though:  the most incredible thing…the thing that gives me so much hope…is that with each new breath we take is the opportunity for a new beginning.  It’s the opportunity to make a better decision.  To make right a wrong.  To start anew.

I know that I have struggled with some pretty destructive patterns of behavior in my own life…and I am trying, trying, trying to make each moment a new beginning of life-giving behavior.  Life-giving to my mind, body, and spirit…and to those I encounter.

No doubt I will falter.  When I do, I’m going to accept the gift of the next breath and a new beginning to do better.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

A song along these lines (pun intended) is “Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

At first glance, the general consensus is that the song is about addiction to drugs (cocaine, heroine), and it certainly applies; however, RHCP lead singer and co-writer, Anthony Kiedis, said, “It’s about the repeated failure to start your life anew and how difficult it can be to get rid off old ways of thinking, and destructive ideas we become so attached to.”

That is how the song speaks to me.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

Yes, I just quoted the Holy Bible and Red Hot Chili Peppers in the same blog post…that’s how I roll.

Snow is symbolic of purity and starting anew. We walk through this life leaving a path of mistakes behind us, but “deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder where it’s so white as snow,” our past is covered leaving a fresh, new path to forge ahead.

A fresh start…just a breath away.

“Snow (Hey Oh)”

(Video/music below lyrics)

Come to decide that the things that I tried
Were in my life just to get high on

When I sit alone come get a little known
But I need more than myself this time

Step from the road to the sea to the sky
And I do believe that we rely on

When I lay it on
Come get to play it on
All my life to sacrifice

Hey oh, listen what I say, oh
I got your
Hey oh, now listen what I say oh, oh

When will I know that I really can’t go
To the well once more, time to decide on

When it’s killing me
When will I really see
All that I need to look inside

Come to believe that I better not leave
Before I get my chance to ride

When it’s killing me
What do I really need
All that I need to look inside

Hey oh, listen what I say. oh
Come back and
Hey oh, look at what I say, oh

The more I see the less I know
The more I like to let it go, hey oh

Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow

Privately divided by a world so undecided
And there’s nowhere to go

In between the cover of another perfect wonder
And it’s so white as snow

Running through the field where all my tracks will
be concealed and there’s nowhere to go

When to descend to amend for a friend
All the channels that have broken down

Now you bring it up
I’m gonna ring it up
Just to hear you sing it out

Step from the road to the sea to the sky
And I do believe what we rely on

When I lay it on
Come get to play it on
All my life to sacrifice

Hey oh, listen what I say, oh
I got your
Hey oh, listen what I say, oh

The more I see the less I know
The more I like to let it go, hey oh

Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow

Privately divided by a world so undecided
And there’s nowhere to go

In between the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow

Running through the field where all my tracks will
Be concealed and there’s nowhere to go

In between the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow

Songwriters: Kiedis/Frusciante/Flea/Smith

Ladies & Gentlemen…

After 10 months of what can only be described as a living hell — wondering what is wrong with me, where did I go wrong in my career and my life, do I have a personality flaw, why am I being rejected on all sides — yet persevering and praying; having friends, family, blogger buddies, and strangers give to me and my daughter out of the generosity of their precious hearts; coming to a place of personal growth as I grew in compassion toward the down & out, growing stronger in faith as I became more dependent on God; watching and waiting; journaling my ups and downs here on my blog and on Twitter & Facebook…

The search is over.

And here’s the BEST part…

I got a job at a place I have wanted to work since they broke ground there.

It is only 2 miles from my house going against the flow of rush hour!!!  That’s right folks, NO MORE Tweets that say “I-24=parking lot” from me!!!

Plus, there is room for growth and advancement.

I will be back in a setting that gives me opportunity to show compassion where it’s needed most:  patients who are sick and down…and families who need a smile or someone to give them a listening ear and assistance.

Starting out, to get my foot in the door, I will not be working a full 40-hours per week.  It’s ok, though…sometimes, you have to pay some dues to get to where you wanna be. I’ve done it before (hello, music business), and I can do it again.

That being said, anybody who needs some freelance writing, editing, typing, proofreading, session singing (I read numbers!), yard mowed, painting, or for Jan & I to come and do some cool wall treatments and design in your home, give me a shout!

Words are not sufficient to express my gratitude for how you wonderful people have hung in there with me throughout this treacherous journey.  With all of the bad we see reported on in this world, the human kindness that me and my daughter have had bestowed upon us through this time has been nothing short of life-sustaining.

For that, I want to say…

Thank you.  I love you.

Onward!

Throughout this season of uncertainty in my life, one of the things that has kept my spirits up has been music.

Sweet music.

This may sound melodramatic, but it’s true:  in recent years, I had gotten to the point where I wouldn’t allow myself to just stop the chatter and the crosstalk in my head and just listen…to music…or to just sit in silence for that matter.  If I did, it might cause my brain to start thinking about things that were way too painful.  It was easier for me to keep the television or talk radio on so my mind was constantly in gear.  The continuous noise drowned out the real feelings going on inside, and I was just fine with that.  I’d rather just push all of it to the back recesses of my mind than to deal with things.

Thanks to some friends who have blessed me beyond measure this year by simply inviting me out to hear some bands, hang out with them — reunite with some old friends from my days in the music industry — and even simply familiarize myself with an iPod — I’m basking myself in the sweetness of music again.

It’s been nice.

I find myself lost in it like I did when I fell in love with music as a teenager.

It’s like finding my first love again.

Jenny & Vince Gill

Lee Ann Womack & I

Fleetwood Mac

Randy Smith & Kevin Adams of the PacAKRacRs

The Jonas Brothers

The Jonas Brothers

Amanda & I at the Jonas Brothers concert

Christ Church Choir at 60th Anniversary Celebration

Ginger with Lori & Joe Katina

Jesse Katina

I’m so very thankful for the simple gifts in life right now. One of those gifts being music. Thank you to those who have shared that precious gift with me and the rest of the world. It is something I treasure.