Deep thoughts

Consciousness is a bitch…

…and hard to maintain. Not the kind that keeps you upright and talking. Fortunately that is usually pretty automatic. I mean the kind that requires you to be aware and non-delusional every waking moment. The kind that makes you perhaps change a habit that’s not serving your life or the world particularly well. Self delusion and being unintentionally insensitive to those around us seems to be our default. And overriding that is work and requires vigilance. Damn.

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Julia GraffComment
Falling Ahead

Yes, it’s been awhile. My missives tend to be timed with the change in seasons I guess. Today marks my 64th anniversary as a human on this planet so it seemed to be an fitting time to write you.

And as time marches on, it all just keeps getting more and more interesting!

The past month I’ve been on a totally different kind of adventure as part of the Arts Club Theatre production of "The Waiting Room". Created by Morris Panych (writer and director of my dreams) and John Mann (Spirit of the West), it is based on the album John wrote following his encounter with the world of colorectal cancer. Not a subject one would assume would inspire great music or theatre, nor be particularly good fodder for humour, but oh my….one would be so wrong! 

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Julia GraffComment
The Summer Weather Report

Wow...what a summer! Apocalyptic forest fires aside, this has been more fun than a girl should get to have.

I am writing you from the banks of the Mississippi...which will be a bit misleading since it's the one that runs by our host's home is in Lanark Ontario (who knew?) where we are staying while performing at the Blue Skies Festival. I have always been a water person, but have not, since my childhood summers on the San Joaquin River, spent much time on rivers. What a sublime experience. I've just spent several days in upstate New York with Karen Savoca & Pete Heitzman at their place, and it has a similar simmering lush feel as this area. Pete said "with the growing season so short nature knows it has to get to it!". It indeed feels like an explosion of life, with a din of everything teeming. You can hear it. Between the Cicadas and the wind in the poplars, and the heat and humidity that seem to emit a hiss of their own, it gives "the sounds of summer" a whole new fecund (I love that word!) and sultry meaning. 

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Julia GraffComment
News and other signs of Summer

First, I must start with the time-honoured ceremonial apology for the long gap in missives from me. In “the old days” we used to just live our lives without any thought of sharing the details any further than a phone conversation with a friend who would pretend to be interested. Technology has brought us the minutia of millions of peoples’ day-to-day lives with embarrassingly mundane detail. Every time I sit down to write you, I struggle with not wanting to be part of all that noise. So between that and the fact that life seems to be relentlessly consuming, the newsletter stubbornly resists taking its rightful place at the top of the To Do list..

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Julia GraffComment
Almost Spring news & musings

Funny how reluctant we are to change – the “hairdresser syndrome”. In fact, I’ve been pondering our resistance and fear of change quite a bit lately. Living on an island tends to bring out that element of human nature with gusto. And yet, I find it ironic that all around us – our homes, our neighbourhoods, our roads, our public areas, all came about through change. The Drawbridge Syndrome looms large on an island. We are unsettled by change, and yet, once it has happened, we adapt, embrace it, celebrate it and it and then guard it ferociously. Then there’s the change we should fight for – our bad habits, our wasteful ways, our road to ruin.

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Julia GraffComment
Another Year, Another Festivus

Welcome to the season of giving and procrastination! 

Is it just me or does do the years seem to cycle far more quickly now than they used to? Didn't we just have Christmas a few months ago? I have SO MUCH to do still in the next 25 years, I'd really appreciate it if they'd slow down a little so I'd have time to get to it all!

I know there's many of you who are receiving my newsletter for the first time, and as promised, they don't come very often! Welcome to Shari's chatty world of the Almost Interesting; Self Serving News; and Annoying Motherly Advice.  

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Julia GraffComment