Creativity Rechanneled For the past several years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with music. Since I was five, I’ve given it my heart. I’ve poured my soul into writing narrative story songs for 20 years, winning several awards and producing two CDs, but with little else to show for it. In 2019, I was finally […]
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Lockdown Lemonade #10- by Celia Chavez
Cocooning As I sit down to write this on a sunny SoCal Autumn afternoon, after a morning walk on the beach, a strong sense of change and flow still feels fresh. Perhaps, months ago, like many in the FAR-West community, I had hoped by now we could be coming out of the pandemic. I had […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #9- by Deborah Crooks
Being Here “I heard “This Land is Your Land,” and thought, ‘that’s me!’” said Benny, a neighbor who’d appeared on the sidewalk after my husband and I sang the Woody Guthrie classic recently. Since March, we’ve been playing safe-socially distanced porch concerts most every week. “I brought you some smoked salmon,” he said, placing a […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #8- by Judy Nazemetz
UNFINISHED PUZZLE RITUAL Eight months ago, at the beginning of lockdown, I brought home a 1000-piece Diego Rivera puzzle entitled “Detroit Industry.” It was amazing. The colors. The details. I could feel the heat of the fire in the factory. I could hear the grunts of the men working the assembly line. Mike and I […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #7 by Hillorie McLarty
The Movie of Moving I am in my carport in North Hollywood, California. John is on a step stool unloading a storage area. There is a lot of dust as he reaches into the storage area and lifts out box after box. I stand as an audience of one, watching my possessions come out of […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #6- by Brett Perkins
Lessons Taught By 2020 2020 was to be my biggest year yet, with the launch of two additional songwriter festivals in Italy and Ireland. Then Covid struck, and every project fell in slow succession like socially distant dominos… March 15-21 Tuscany Retreat & Festival CANCELLED. June 3-10 Idyllwild Retreat & Festival CANCELLED. August 24-30 Copenhagen […]
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A special Thanksgiving Edition of Lockdown Lemonade…
A special Thanksgiving Edition of Lockdown Lemonade… After 9 years of being homefree, I am grateful to finally have my own roof over my head again surrounded by my things here in my apartment in Oakland, CA. By divine grace, this place became available right when I really needed it after the shelter-in-place order and […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #5- by Julie Zipperer
I have never been so grateful for my iPhone, Steve Jobs and Zoom Before the lockdown, it seemed my family and I only got together once a year on the beach in Sarasota. In March when the lockdown hit, we all started meeting on zoom. And I mean all, from my immediate family, Mom, Dad, […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #4- The Spare Room by Susie Glaze
The Spare Room It sat there, unnoticed and taken for granted since the renovation relegated it to pass-through territory. It wasn’t a destination anymore, just a glorified hallway. Until a small miracle happened. I remember what the little room was like when we first saw the house, full of electronic equipment that didn’t match its old-world […]
Read moreMore TagLockdown Lemonade #3- My Lockdown Experience by Tracy Newman
My Lockdown Experience At the beginning of the COVID 19 lockdown, I assumed I would write a lot of songs, learn new guitar licks, practice, finish my book, clean and organize my house, etc. Instead, I stopped doing pretty much everything. I lost all motivation. Now, what is it, 8 months into this? Well, in […]
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