Time Travel

I’ll be at Tuvalu Coffeehouse in Verona 7-9:30 p.m. tonight. Hope to see you! Tell friends and family who live in the Madison area!

Now for some musings from my songwriter mind. . . . I hope you’ll add your own musings below.

Playing my songs takes me back to the experience of writing them, calling up again the thoughts and feelings that inspired me. This past weekend, as I rehearsed my sets for the Tuvalu show, I traveled back in time to when I was 18 and writing about the part of my childhood I spent near the Ohio River in Rosiclare, Illinois and the fireworks over the river and ice cream on my little sister’s face. I re-experienced the comfort of friendship during a trying time when I could have fallen into despair had it not been for friends and their smiles, laughter and caring company.  My first love, my last love and my true love visited me, reminding my heart of how to express the feelings bundled into those songs like keepsakes wrapped and stored to protect them from damage as the years pass.

What keepsakes do you have carefully preserved–a baby blanket, a favorite childhood toy, a grandmother’s quilt? They grow old as we grow old, yet, taking them out now and then, our touch awakens them and they transport us to a timeless place of emotion and memory. Our experience is renewed.

Seeing my songs from the perspective of years is like looking at a sculpture from another angle or at another time of day when the light hits it differently. Each time I sing a song I recreate it fresh, colored by what life has brought me through since the last time I sang it. This re-creation of a song in performance and the singular experience of sharing it with others keeps me contacting venues and asking for a chance to play.

I’d love to hear from you about your creative and re-creative endeavors. What makes emotions fresh for you? What connects you with others in a way that fills you with energy and inspiration? Shared moments. . .

~Kaia