Sonata In Me

What do you do when 3 out of 5 tour members are hit with a cold, it’s 17 degrees outside, and you have a concert at night? You sit in the motel room with the heat all the way up, drink lots of water, take baths, take medicine, drink hot tea, and update your blog.

Yesterday we drove from Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Asheville, NC and found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm and deep freeze. The temperature in Winston-Salem was about 60º yesterday. The temperature including windchill is 5º here in Asheville. At least the co-op grocery store is within walking distance!

The concert in Winston-Salem was amazing. Not only was it a concert, but the organizers arranged for a free vegetarian feast before the show. The crowd was in the most blissful mood for the concert. It’s a great idea!
KP and I started to get sick while we were still in Virginia, so our wonderful hosts Arci and Dulal served us a special tea which felt like fire when we drank it. It turned out to be a tea made from jalapeño, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, and cardamom. Very intense. I think we’re on the tail end of the sickness though. Everything will be fine.

Again, it’s been a while. The five of us are now in a town called Newport News, Virginia— just a few miles from Langley Air Force Base. We’ve played at the A.R.E. center founded by Edgar Cayce and the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Peninsula in the Virginia Beach area. It has been a tremendous weekend full of warm hearts and some of the best music to date. This tour we are headed from Virginia through the Carolinas, Georgia, down to the Miami area, and back up to Winter Solstice in Lake Wales, Florida. Right now I am sitting with Guru Ganesha and Karta in a local Panera (another great establishment with WiFi) while Krishan gets Miracle fixed. Yes, our reliable van has gone to the auto shop. We have been noticing a funky smell coming from under the hood after drives and eventually the “get engine serviced soon” light came on. We haul a lot of weight with that engine. I’m surprised that it does so well.

Thoughts that have been coming up so far on this tour are about the mind. One of our producers said something very interesting. We tend to associate and attatch emotions to things. We link certain states of mind to external situations. What happens if we choose to be positive no matter what is going on outside? The entire world changes and all you can do is laugh when chaos is sent your way. As a reminder, my blood type is B Positive. We’re happy to have a little relaxing time. Winston-Salem, NC here we come!

Pictures coming soon!