It's a threshold time...
A time to listen and be patient
as well as act....

Years ago a wise teacher gave me
the image of resting in a boat
being carried on strong, benevolent
currents... an image to balance
momentum and stillness.

Sometimes
I'm resting in the boat.
More often I'm enjoying
dipping my canoe paddle
deep in the waters
of that guide-and-be-guided
exchange with the elements.

Moving slowly
so heart and eyes and body
can hear, delight, question,
even grieve, about the immensity,
the tenderness and contradictions
in all that surround us --
what is given,
what we make,
what blooms
and fades,
how we do or don't care,
how crucial to be present,
and how challenging.

Small sincere actions
effect ripples
far beyond
what we can know....

I wish you a Spring full of good health and courage whereever the waters
take you.

Left photo: Robert Corwin
Poster: Daniel Deardorff

Text: (c) 2009 Judith-Kate Friedman

APRIL & MAY
Singing season is here!

Greetings!

As we head into May I'm thrilled to have so many opportunities to sing and teach and instigate songwriting this season. Come all ye local vocalists and would be singers to a series of workshops May 3-June 20 in Port Townsend. More info on the Song Studio page. Click here.

This week marks the start of Songwriting Works' NEA-funded faciitator training program! We've selected five outstanding songwriters from three states and have started a wait list for all interested in future trainings. If you'd like to participate, volunteer, or support this work, please click here for the www.songwritingworks.org site.

On the road:
I'm presenting on Psalms songwriting with elders with colleague Rabbi Sheldon Marder at Midrash & Medicine, May 11-13 in CA. Looking ahead to summer I'll be touring with Daniel Deardorff in New England including Boston July 17. We've room in our schedule to add concerts, house party benefits for Songwriting Works and the Mythsinger Foundation - and workshops - contact us if you'd like to host or help with an event in NY, NJ, CT, RI, VT, or NH!

This summer I'll be offering MetLife/American Society on Aging Songwriting Works trainings for arts and health professional in Brookline, MA, Detroit, MI, Chattanooga, TN, and Alaska. Concerts and workshops will be added in these regions. If you'd like to help instigate, let us know!

As always, I look forward to seeing you and raising the roof and touching the sky with our voices.

No matter what conspires to dampen the spirit, no matter what hardship we may be facing in these challenging times, there is an unstoppable sound that deserve and need expression. Find yours.
Offer it the way the flowers open to Spring.

Wishing you health and much blooming in the weeks ahead,
with love,

Judith-Kate