Hi Friends. Sometimes you learn something you cannot unlearn, and that thing changes your understanding of the world around you. When this happens the everyday becomes suddenly unfamiliar because you understand it differently. It's neither good nor bad – rather, the value of this kind of experience is in its seismic force, and what we make of it is really up to us. Either way, there is no going back. Once your world changes like this, you cannot step back over the threshold. This kind of perspective-shifting revelation happened to me this month, and now much of what I believed about myself or how my life was going has been turned on its head. This has led to many late nights of mind buzz as my thoughts achieve turbo speed in an attempt to understand the new realities peeking over the horizon. The increasing volume and incessant fervor of the peepers calling in the woods outside my house at night seems to mimic this whole process. I am up late in the studio where all worlds seem to collide and I create as an act of marking this change, doing my best to use this series of shifting realities towards a higher and greater good. Interestingly, while I’ve been riding these waves and acquainting myself with emerging new “normals,” the everyday has – every day – appeared less and less humdrum and more and more remarkable. I find myself meditating often on the image of the setting sun, one of nature’s most iconic messages about ephemeral everyday beauty – a departure of something so powerful, so beautiful, that you want to hang onto it forever. I think this is part of why so many people take so many pictures of so many sunsets: The setting sun explodes the everyday from "regular reality" into all the magnificent colors it contains. All the magic embedded within the everyday this whole time is suddenly on display for us to behold. We photograph these ritual explosions of beauty to remember how remarkable the everyday actually is. To hold onto the secret knowledge that this life is precious. What would you want to photograph in your everyday as a reminder of the preciousness of your time here? Where in your life can the unremarkable be reinvented, even for a few moments, as beautiful and life-affirming? ☲☲☲ I hate to be cryptic … (actually no, who am I kidding, I love being cryptic) … but I can't share exactly what's going on hereabouts just yet. That said, there are some big life shifts going on here for me, and some big creative shifts at Friend Energies, that I hope to share with you soon. What I DO have to offer this month, however, is the energetically-curated June playlist, naturally, as well as a just-released feature on NPR where I talk with with music editor Doyle Dean about some interesting and probably unexpected details about my album, Following the Light. Like most of what we perceive and believe, the music on that record is perhaps not exactly what it seems. That’s all I’ll say about that – you'll have to listen below to find out more ♡
Curated with the heady momentum of seismic belief shifts in mind: Listen to this mix as you find your own late nights in the studio, or find yourself contemplating new versions of your everyday reality. You're never alone in these threshold moments, even though it feels like it. For now, these tunes are here for you as a companion, and in spirit, so am I ♡
A few months ago I had a nice long chat with musical editor Doyle Dean, who runs a musical series called Underscore that features stories behind the music of North Country artists. I recorded my album Following the Light in this region, and was happy to share with Doyle a little more of what that process was like. I also reveal a secret collaborator who might surprise you ♡
If you're a fan of vinyl and of my album, you're in luck! There's a little vinyl left from the limited run I made last fall. Click HERE to get your copy ♡
For those who haven't checked it out yet, the best way to stream my album is on Spotify. Click HERE to listen ♡
~ Sending you all solidarity in whatever forms of everyday reinvention
that find you,
call to you,
or make you their own ~
Caitlin
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