From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, read by Clementine.

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Oh to create uplifting, transcendent, soul-strengthening pieces of work. What happens as I write those words is immediate defeat. How can you enter into creating anything with the dream of changing the world? I can’t think of anything that clamps down on creativity more. I think of the unslept, fleeing families in Oroville at the moment. What good will a poem do for them right now?

I made it a point to buckle down to play more drums this week. Maybe I’m not creating anything of use or inspiration for the world, but I do need to keep my chops up. I am learning a new Zeppelin song. I need to just physically work at that, and play through the set, work on those things I’m constantly trying to improve. I wanted to get lost in that place without words, that place of geometry and algebra and primal communication beyond story. What lets loose in the moments of freely beating the drums is a deep language, connected to all time and all language. Drums are the first instrument, before words. Drums are the signal to gather, the calling forth of spirit, the connection to a past so long that only our cells remember. Drums are magic. This week, I got lost in the magic for a while. I consoled myself with rhythm.