happy birthday Ace!

Annalise celebrates her 19th birthday today. She was barely 2 years old when she told me she planned to be a singer when she grew up.

She's done it.

When she was in 5th grade, she showed everyone in the audience at the Summit K-12 talent show, about 400 kids and parents, that she had a great voice along with the confidence and gumption to deal with adversity, when the sound system broke, forcing her to step up to the mic and sing her song acappella, on pitch and in tune. Now she's playing guitar and writing her own songs. She's smart and passionate, has a sense of adventure, knows how to budget her time and money and she's an incredibly hard worker. Oh and she's beautiful too. Yeah, you bet I'm proud, you would be too.

Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Country music is three chords and the truth.
Harlan Howard

Dolly Parton and Annalise

Dolly invited 200 Belmont students to her rehearsal tonight at the Belmont version of the Frank Erwin center. Annalise is one of the 200!

my girl's music

Back from Nashville last night. A long, good, trip.
I drove to Texarkana from Waxahachie, Wed. night, then on to Nashville on Thursday. I learned a lot from the marathon, probably the best thing I learned was how to break long things up into little chunks. Instead of 2 mile chunks, I thought of the trip in 2 hour chunks. There are lots of long, 2 hour chunks in a car with no tape player or CD player. I did talk to myself a lot, I cried a little, too, good remnants from the day before, and I downloaded a few pod casts. Still, anyone who has seen Annalise's car knows about the bumper stickers and driving through the south with a "Draft the SUV Drivers First" sticker can be a little daunting.

I had a great time with my girl. She's so wonderful, and I'm not just saying that cause I'm her Mom. I 'm seeing her explore who she is, and be challenged and change in little and big ways. She told me that academically, emotionally, socially, spiritually, on so many levels, she's growing. I can see it. She also told me that she might come home at Christmas break with a tattoo. (I don't think she knows how much tatoos cost, but who knows, she might just get one anyway.)

She wrote a song for Kayse and played it for me before I left. I didn't cry, I just sat and listened while my hands and feet just kinda trembled. Her song didn't sugarcoat anything, it was honest, authentic and kind, just like Annalise.
The song was about all the things that happen that we don't and cannot understand. The refrain was something like "add this to the list of the things that we can't understand". Then she followed it with a stanza about having faith anyway.
Damn straight, girl.

She's coming home Wed. night as we had another loss in the family.

My granny Dovie, the sweetest, kindest, lady that ever lived, passed away early Sunday a.m. My Dad was with her. Annalise will be singing at the graveside service, "In the Garden", which was Dovie's favorite hymn.

I'm not much on a classic view of Heaven, I'm not sure what happens after this, but I'm pretty sure it's a whole new adventure and we all take comfort knowing that Granny and Kayse are starting their new adventure together.

In the mean time, we'll just keep pulling together down here, being there for each other, working out the details, softening up a bit under the weight of it all and having faith anyway.

i love john prine

This quiet, simple weekend is a blessing. After the activity of the past few weeks, this little interlude has been magnificient.

The dogs got me up super early, they hear things, and the biggest pleasure in their universe, after eating, is being in charge of the backyard. So, we all got up and checked it out. Everything was fine, so I made coffee and took my laptop to bed and have been catching up on writing and work all morning. I don't have to be anywhere, my trip to FL is cancelled until September.

I've fallen in a big way. I've love the Ipod. It helps me run and it helps me write, it's a total crutch, but I love it, anyway. Today, I remembered how much I love John Prine. I do John, I love you