Last time I updated, I was in… Connecticut? Since then we have played shows in New York, New Jersey, Toronto and London, Michigan, and now we are in Evanston, Illinois. We are staying in a beautiful house in Winnetka, IL which is about ten minutes from our venue in Evanston. It is amazing how generous each host is in each town. I am so grateful for the generosity each family has shown us. Tonight is the last concert of the tour… I am relieved and at the same time very excited. We have been on the road for almost a month now and have covered a lot of ground. DC to Ottawa back to the northeast, up to Toronto, down to Michigan, and now the greate Chicagoland Area!
Touring has thoroughly reinforced my belief that worrying is pointless. Yesterday we left Troy, Michigan at 10:15 eastern time expecting to arrive in Chicago for a 4:00 children’s program with extra time to warm up. We got to Gary, Indiana at around 1:30 and hit hard rain and traffic. It took another 4 hours to get from Gary through the city traffic. I don’t think we got to the venue until maybe 5. The entire way, we saw huge flashes of lightning and felt the heavy winds. Last time I was in Chicago, the weather was so peaceful and beautiful. This time we heard weather reports for wind and snow. We have decided that there is no such thing as an “easy” travel day. We DID get to our venue and put on a great half-hour program for about 50 kids. They were all excited to see Guru Ganesha’s guitar, hear Snatam’s stories, see my clarinet, and of course, hear Krishan’s tablas. Snatam asked the kids if they knew what instrument I played. One boy up in front immediately yelled “CLARINET!” It made me very happy. Anyway, worrying… It’s pointless. We could have easily freaked out about our delay. It almost happened. But you get to a point where you have to realize that there’s nothing you can do about it. You get there when you get there and it will be great. That’s just the way it is… To quote Billy Preston, “That’s the way God planned it and that’s the way God wants it to be.” It’s much more exciting when he sings it though.
So off we go into the wild blue yonder. The tour is still going strong through the end! I will have many funny stories to post after the tour is over.
