Hi! Still on tour - it’s been a month and we are quickly approaching the halfway point. It’s weird but I’ve settled into hotel living - I’ve always had a penchant for life on the road so even though I miss home and my beloved and Baba very much, I’m also used to this. What I am noticing though is that the infrastructure airport/hotel land has decreased in quality, even the spaces that are supposedly ‘luxury.’ It ain’t what it used to be… Still I am grateful for my own room every night and a few hours to recharge.
I love the travelers I am with and this is the greatest joy to report.
Since my last post, we’ve been to Redding, Livermore, Lancaster and Long Beach California, then to Arizona for 2 shows (Wickenburg and Tucson), Utah (Orem and Logan) and Ketchum Idaho, and now back in Palm Desert California for one last show before we head to Colorado tomorrow. Heavy travel indeed! Luckily I continue to encounter friends and family along the route so it makes it really fun to see people I haven’t seen in (sometimes) years!
“What we love about music is that it sounds inevitable. It plays what is unfolding whether we accept it or not.” Jon Batiste, American Symphony
Last night as I was waiting for sleep I saw ‘American Symphony’ with Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad. I had read Suleika’s book ‘Between Two Kingdoms’ when I was going through chemo myself in 2021 and have been a fan ever since. Batiste was on my radar as well through his role on Colbert and I put it together they were an item as I read her book. I had ‘watched’ the movie a couple months ago but had actually fallen asleep in the first 5 minutes, so it didn’t really count. This happens to me a lot! Anyway, I found it to be moving to see this couple going through the extreme ups and downs of success/illness/outcomes/stress and I could relate heavily to so much of it. I love that Batiste says, “What we love about music is that it sounds inevitable. It plays what is unfolding whether we accept it or not.” Ah yes. As we ramble around I make playlists after playlists to try and describe how I am feeling - what I want to hear in that moment. So many variables. The soundtrack of life - sometimes we can control it, sometimes we can’t. The outcome of situations - it’s never up to us. It is a lesson that keeps showing itself to me time and time again. It’s why living in this present moment, each day different from the next can be so enlightening, because all you have is this day, this show, this flight, this samosa. Yesterday we were…. we reach to remember. And tomorrow we are…. hold on, I can tell you in a minute. It’s different than ‘normal’ life and it is in fact quite abnormal. You start to wonder how this became anything at all. But then the show happens, people are there for it, and we learn how much it means for people to hear songs they grew up listening to again. And it makes it very much worth it. So here we are, living another glorious day!
Here is one of my recent playlists:
Happy to report I got a pedicure today and some healthy food from Whole Foods, which helps the day feel like a win! More later, xo m
Megan- You're right about "we learn how much it means for people to hear songs they grew up listening to again." I was just talking to a few folks on how music transports and takes us some place. There are some music even, that I feel are only associated with certain places. Strange isn't it? :)
Love you Megan!!!