These days we can’t go more than four minutes on any social media platform without noticing someone sharing about doing life their own way. Any number of hashtags, from vanlife to roadschooling and living off the grid, pop up to intrigue viewers to follow the journey of those choosing to do their own thing. Perhaps we’re moving into a time of life where the non-traditional is becoming traditional, or perhaps, if that’s not the case, it’s the bubble in which my brain wants to live. 

News of natural disasters comes from Turkey and Syria and New Zealand. There’s the ongoing war in Ukraine and strife in Myanmar and Ethiopia. There are shootings, arguments, food insecurity, racism, political division around the globe, the ongoing effects of climate change, anger in public and private life...

All of which can make for a rather bleak scenario. Musicians live through these things, too. Often, there are threads of hope and resilience to be found in what they create.

This summer, my husband and I undertook a move. A relocation from Massachusetts to Arizona has been undertaken by others, no doubt. We decided to make things a little more interesting than a direct route. We headed north. Our circuitous route is winding us through Newfoundland, Portugal, and North Carolina. When one would think to take the southerly route from the Carolina’s to Arizona in the winter months, we will make Bugs Bunny’s famous right turn at Albuquerque to get to Bozeman, Montana. Then, we’ll drive to Arizona.

Life is messy. If only we knew that as teenagers, perhaps we wouldn’t have been so hard on ourselves about not knowing so many things—like what major we want, what path we wish to take, where we want to live, how we can best help make the world better, what we want to be when we get older, how much money we ‘should’ have, and all of the zillion other questions that rattle around our minds once we begin to think about how we might ‘fit’ in the world at large.