Rats

A rat chewed through some of the wires in our van's engine. This is just one of the reasons why yesterday was a bad day.

We were in need of some help. Some good news. Something to go right. A few of us who don't usually pray... prayed. Mercy. We need help.

And help started to come through an angel/ sound engineer named Paul. We pulled up to the venue in Elmshorn, Germany for the sound check... late, hungry, greasy, tired, grouchy. But Paul was there with a smile and a joke and energy... and really good sound equipment. We quickly set up and he directed us towards free brats, bread, and beer, which were waiting for us just around the corner.

Thank God for the audience and the church we played in last night. It was a blast to play music for them, which is why we are here on tour in the first place--- to play music. But in a strange way, it's like the audience was there to encourage us rather than the inverse. Thank you, God.

There's a proverb that says "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a faraway land." Man, is this ever true. A mere "Hello, I'm thinking of you, I love you" can be so touching and like water to your soul. The other day, Cat (the drummer from Australia) got a simple text-picture of one of her best friends blowing her a kiss. That's all she needed. It brought tears to her eyes and water to her soul. A couple days later, there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for me in the dressing room from a friend in France. Again, tears to the eyes. Water to the soul.

Before the show last night, Louise (string player from Australia) was talking about how, before every performance, she dedicates or sets her thoughts towards someone and decides to play for that person. It keeps monotonous performances from being fake.

So I tried it. I was thinking of my brother and sister in law, Clint and April, while I played last night. It's their 1st wedding anniversary this weekend. They are in Thailand. I miss them. I love them. A year ago, I was in San Diego playing for their blessed beach wedding. Here I was playing for them again. Thanks for the advice, Louise. It changed what came out of my hands last night.

Other thoughts:

One more thing about windmills and I'll stop: It seems like no matter what music you're listening to, the tempo of the music seems to match the speed of the windmills, even when there is a cluster of windmills and they're all moving at different speeds. It's like they are still perfectly in sync with both each other and the music.

I would like to take up the harmonica.