This day on Memorial Day weekend, I remember two amazing women who saved me during one of the hardest times of my life. Kathleen is the inspiration for the song: "Garden of the Goddess". Memorial Day isn't just about remembering those who died in wars.
Kathleen Smith, my earth mother, is a powerful Reiki Master and massage artist. The pillows surrounding her in the picture above are her creations. I experience her art to be like her - soothing, healing, beautiful. She lives in Montara, California near where I used to live and near the redwoods. It seems to be magical when you are with her.
Tringali is: Linda Tringali. She was my precious sister and partner. I first met Linda at a co-op preschool carnival. She came walking up to me as I sat on the edge of the outdoor play area. Her homemade chicken costume completely hid any human detail. My first view of her was her chicken feet house-shoes. Her first words to me: "I am supposed to know you." We became instant best friends and called ourselves: "Tringali/Roth". We performed together for nearly three years. I did my first two albums with Linda. Linda lives just north of Kathleen in Pacifica, California.
I love these friends and feel close to them even though we never see each other or talk. I have moved to Oregon.
Today, my dear friend, Fillus, is coming to watch a movie with me. I will serve lunch and we will laugh. It is such a blessing to have friends.
Yesterday I enjoyed two of my other dear friends, Sharon and Scott. We walked through the Growers Market then enjoyed organic lunch, that was divine at a cafe as the parade danced by.
Friends: My best dog friend, got a trim this morning from me. She feels so very happy and now she needs to nap.
I will be mindful of the blessing of my friends this weekend. My very best friend is Russ. He is looking for a place to watch the Indie 500. It is fine that I do not enjoy all of the same things he does. I will be here when he gets home and I will listen as he tells me about it. Ahhhh, Friends.
Today, I will also enjoy the memories of times with my step daughter, Karuss, her amazing husband, Jeremy and our brilliant little Abigail Grace. My song for Abigail is called: "One Big Smile". The words are on this site.
Karuss and Jeremy have made me feel loved and cherished. Abigail Grace has helped to heal me by making me a grandmother. Grin!
Memorial Day is also about those who have passed on. I send my mom and dad a heart throb of feeling - love and sadness that they are gone from this place. My father used to say that nobody has the right to criticize you. He and my mom were so very much in love. Dad was 5'3". Mom was 5'1". They seemed to be made for each other and were always within reach.
I suppose the last person I shall honor today with my memory is my daughter, Tara. Tara refuses to have a relationship with me. You can find a video of the song I wrote in my coping with this sadness from my daughter, Tara Roth at this link.
The song is called: "On the Other Side" the link is:
http://youtu.be/684--Nxum5s
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This is a good day. It's been raining and I love Oregon. Russ is going out to get the milk. Did you know we go all the way to Rogue River to get milk from grass-fed pastured cows - it is a good day. It's been raining and I love Oregon. I I have been working diligently to update this website. I finally have all of my publish songs with lyrics and chords paired with their recorded versions on audio bars. My desire is for listeners who play guitar to be able to play along with my recordings. This is very addictive. I can see why people get into this the way they do. I just they get really good at it.
If the goal is to stand and win,
it is necessary to stand and face the same direction. Today, I received a long comment/reply to one of my posts. The woman was obviously ready to fight and, there I was a seeming easy and safe target. I, however, am not easy as I have been in the fight for about 35 years. It is a common error to attack those closest to you, your supporters, those who are on your side, but this only helps the opposition. It is a tactic of war to create discord in the ranks, to encourage in-fighting. When I am attacked by someone on my side of the fight, it is an opportunity to re-mind the attacker. It is our power to direct our passion in the same direction. There is plenty of fear, prejudice and hatred, but what will win the day is that we are fighting for what is right - for love of our home, our country, our way of life. On Facebook and other social media, there is the misconception that one commenter knows the other and out comes the weapon of words that only create division and harm. The commenter does nothing to inform or add to the conversation. Their words inflame and create another version of war, that is not only unhelpful, but too often damaging. It is my choice to pause when I feel the sting of insult and innuendo. I usually write a scathing response, delete and rewrite a restrained teaching that this war will be won if we focus our righteous anger on the deserving enemy and not on our fellow activists. Two years ago, I wrote a song titled, "One Mind". It takes one mind to heal the world. 50 cowboys on horseback with no guns drawn advanced silently on the heavily-armed and threatening government agents. What the cowboys shared was a single-minded idea and goal. They won. The agents backed down without a single shot fired. Currently, there is a lot of NON-truth being repeated by the government agents, but the videos are many. The aggressors were the agents. The people who stood up for their righteous cause of liberty are now on to the next phase, where the FBI is investigating, but the FBI are part of a government what reinvents the facts to suit its purpose. The war is on. It is sad, but we must remember through all of the lies, that we are on the same side that is righteous. There is plenty to fear, but we must stand because they give us no other acceptable choice. The standing is about love. We fight to save our world from tyranny manifested in chem-trailed skies, fracking, genetically modified everything, loss of rights and property and health. Will we win? I don't know. I do know it is a world fight. My favorite two quotes of late are from the movie, "Red Dawn". 1. "Even a little flea can drive the big dog crazy" and 2. "Marines don't die, they just go to hell and regroup." Ooh-Ra! I was thinking about the absurdity of misery - not fleeting misery, but ongoing misery. There have been so many miserable times in my life when I have been forced to face horrible people every day. Times when I have been alone have been many.
I am an entertainer, that means that I have been alone when I left the performance. I am a woman. Men have groupies, women do not have groupies. We are alone. We carry our own equipment because we cannot afford to hire a person to carry for us. It is amazing to me how many people do not understand what it means to be in the perfession that is music. How many understand that we are ruled by non-musicians that are paid by keeping us employed? We run from performance to performance. We stay in horrible sad cheep hotels. Meanwhile, those who arrange things live the high life, over-book us and keep us running. We do it. We run and are alone. We are the women who entertain you. I no longer sacrifice for the benefit of the untalented. I am the singer. I am the song-writer. I am the individual who hears the soundless sound that is the inspired song and thrills to the amazing disembodied spirit that strives to pass on their powerful creation. This cannot happen without my cooperation. I am the key to this product that is a song. It is my skill that allows the song to become manifest I feel the pull and push of the spirit that desires to be heard. It is my skill that makes the song possible. I take the dictation, then put the words in the form that makes sense. I add the sounds of melody - the rhythm - the pattern that appeals and addicts the listener to the song. It is bliss. That is the hook to the artist, to feel the "hook" is undeniable success. It is accomplished. A song is born. It is our tradition, for no reason other than it just works out that way, that we begin celebrating birthdays days before the actual birth date. Today is Sunday. Russ' birthday is really on Wednesday. I offered to bar-b-que, but it is both Windy and rainy. The grass fed organic ribs are being oven baked in a delicious sauce. The picture above is of Russ all ready to go riding with his bike buddies. Yes, in the rain. That is alright. It gets him out of the house, so I can get ready to fit everybody inside our little home for an amazing dinner and entertainment. The trio is coming. We will sing Russ' song: "Rogue River Russ".. It is the Sunday before Russ' birthday. We were going to bar-b-que and shoot bee bee guns. Instead:
Eight good friends ate inside because it rained. Eight is perfect in my little home. Sharon, Scot and I sang the songs that went with the stories of Russ. "Starlit Ballroom" was inspired by the place where I used to go ballroom dancing in Sunnyvale, California where I met Russ. "Rogue River Russ" is about my bike riding man. "Walkin' His Honey" is inspired by one of our favorite dates when we lived in Los Gatos, California. We love to go out walking on a Saturday night up the Main Street when all the shops are closed, holding hands and talking. I am 5'2" tall. Russ is 6' which makes me just the right height to kiss when I stand on the curb. This many years later, we still grin and kiss when I am on a step or curb. "His Sweet Sue" is also inspired by Russ. He fell in love with me the night we met. His story is that he saw my presence before I even came in the room. In the song, the man falls for Sue when he sees her sitting at the bar. He loves to dance with her and she doesn't mess with his head. In the end, she makes his house a home. I must say, Russ does the same for me: he doesn't mess with my head and makes this house a home. It is amazing to be in love with the man I am married to. This is my third marriage. It is Russ' third marriage too. Third time is the charm. It has been a rather brutal few days dealing with the problems of my country. There is only so much I can take in then I must step away to remember (re-member), to get my Self together and become whole - to heal. I go to the garden to regain my balance and shed the muck created by so many in this world.
My truth is it is a bless-ed day in this realm (my home and world). As I walk around my garden I see the tomatoes (well, two of them) have bravely asserted their first tiny leaves above the soil I so carefully planted them in. They live! The collards are now about three and a half inches high and healthy! Woo Hoo! The white icicle radishes are showing signs of life, so I sprinkled a bit more soil on them as I believe that will please them. It is a good day. Lynn comes for guitar lesson this morning at 10:00 but otherwise I'll be out in the garden. I love Lynn. Russ' friend controls slugs by strategically placing boards throughout the planting area. It works! The little boogers go under the boards and wait patiently for me to come along everyday and collect them. I just knock them into a bucket or jar and drown them, or, if I don't have a container with me, I drop them on the closest hard surface and step on them which seems kinder as it is a fast way to enter Slugdom (a mythological place where slugs go after they die) The Shasta daisies are all coming into bloom and some have fallen into the path, blackberries are taking off, strawberries are sending out runners. Seems like a good day to prune and snip. I like to tend to the plants. Then it is Patti-made banana wine and watering. (Goes under heading of favorite things) It is good to take a step away from the fray and 62 emails of mostly articles that inform of so many steeeeeuuuuupid things that man in his illusion is creating, from war to destructive monetary schemes to .... Well, so many things. The garden is refuge. Today I will sing, teach and play. The world will continue to spin and some humans will continue to hate, but I shall focus on the other humans - the ones who love. There are always weeds in the garden, but the joy is in the produce and beauty of fresh green moss, healthy ferns and colorful flowers. And then there's the Little White Dog: Guess she needs a bath. In the business of live entertainment, one thing you must learn to understand in order to survive is hecklers. Today's hecklers are called "Trolls" and they are really just sadistic cyber bullies.
I have always had to deal with hecklers and usually made them part of the show. In fact, many of these same nasty individuals would follow me and show up just to call out some insult attempting to engage me and get me off track. They seemed to think they were clever. They actually caused an increase in my following because there were fans that never missed a show in anticipation of what I would say back to these twisted individuals. There was a mutual hate shared by the audience for the hecklers and eventually, as the heckler became more and more cruel, the audience would deal with it for me by coming down hard on the offending victimizer and, sometimes, having them thrown out. Today, over the internet, there is great opportunity for hateful bullies to muck up and ultimately ruin an online discussion with their interfering senseless insults. They belittle anyone good and honorable by adding sexual slur to their names while working in misinformation to cause the victim of their slander to get off point. If they can accomplish flustering their target and the victim attempts to retaliate, it is called, "feeding the troll". What to do About Trolls I never feed a troll intentionally. If I am getting flustered, I step away and go do something else, or just leave the site entirely. When there are multiple trolls this is the only way to win. Answering them creates a feeding frenzy and blog-battle that only wastes time and space. I have better ways to use my time. I handle trolls in the same way as hecklers. I do not take their bate. Sometimes I use their bate against them. After a few times of doing this they usually get so flustered that they curse me, insult me and write something totally stupid blaming me for ruining the site and stating (in all caps) that they will never return. They leave. This is followed by cyber high-fives all around. It is essential to never engage a troll about a subject you are not well-informed about. They will demand scientific proof. This keeps you busy. Since I already have done my research, I usually have a list of links to provide for them. I dumped 50 links on one troll who demanded links. He was really upset about it. This is an example of using their bait against them. His response was that if I wasn't going to take him seriously, he had nothing more to say. Of coarse, he also called me a "stupid c*nt" among other inappropriate things. Trolls often have screen names like "freedomseeker101" or "nevadarancher545" (that one was following me around the Cliven Bundy articles comment section) "texnev26" was pretty nasty and seemed to enjoy his sadism. The worse by far is: "Jeffery McCain". I do not know if Jeffery is a troll in the usual sense, he just seems to like to try to bully me and shows up everywhere belittling me and telling me I am delusional. When a bully is this relentless, I just take all of the fun out of his action by heaping great gobs of sympathy on him and responding with concern and sadness. As his comments are public and recently did become a permanent part of my YouTube persona. I took all of the sting out by explaining publicly next to his comment that he really is just an obsessed fan and bully who has a twisted way of showing his love. That if I really am so unappealing to him, why not just go away? It must be love and I am blessed. Boy is he going to be mad when he reads that! I imagine he will write something nasty back. People will then begin to check in to see what I will reply. Just another heckler doing their job. “Ride With the Wind” is my new song as of today. I was inspired by a moment in history that I am witnessing through articles, blogs, postings, comments and videos. Am I obsessed? Perhaps. Or maybe I just like western stuff. Cowboys and courage. I love that.
Anyway, this is the stuff of folk-songs and legend. Two weeks ago in Bunkerville, Nevada 200 heavily armed government snipers, attack dogs, helicopters and SWAT teams were stopped by 1,000 militia, Constitutional Sheriffs, protesters and activists who showed up to defend the last rancher in Clark County, Nevada. For more than a week, I have collected and viewed articles, photos and videos of a heavy handed government force showing up to collect grazing fees from a rancher who has Preemptive Rights to graze his cattle on public land that borders his ranch that his family has been living on, working and raising cattle since 1870. The rancher, Cliven Bundy and his family are standing bravely on principle, willing to die for this land and livelihood. I profoundly feel the power of this movement and thrill to see people standing up. This songs is for those who came from as far away as Alaska at their own expense to defend a family they did not know. They have something inside of them that causes them to act and they were ready to die. To me, writing and publishing this song is a way I can fight for the liberty I treasure. In the tradition of folk music, I seek to inform, inspire and encourage the listeners of the country that I love. The actions of the many who are joining militia and working to inform the uninformed makes me proud. There is hope and I have faith that we will prevail. I put the pictures found on the internet to the song (The words with chords are on the Lyrics & Chords page) I posted the song on YouTube for all to share. Here is the link: http://youtu.be/lLfsCnciTrM Domestic Terrorist?! Really?! The first time I really had to laugh - though it truly is frightening - about our government's new definitions regarding what is a terrorist, was when I saw Girl Scouts listed by the FDA as a terrorist organization. My mother was a Girl Scout leader and I was a First Class Scout. We were pro-American patriots in our minds.
Lately we, here in this (used to be) great country, have a wonderful thing happening. The people, who are able and willing, are heading out by the hundreds to Bunkerville, Nevada to stand with and defend the last Rancher in Clark County from, the name-callers: the United States Government. At least from the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid who is stoking the fires of civil war by calling the good citizens "domestic terrorists" and defending the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Right and duty to bring those citizens into line. How dare they stand against those fine well-armed men of the government SWAT teams in defense of a good really law abiding family that has been there for about 140 years running a ranch in good stewardship of a piece of desert needed for the Chinese to build a solar panel manufacturing plant and utility size solar farm. Imagine? The Gaul of that rancher!!! |
Patti Jo Roth-Edwards
I am so very glad to have you visit me here at my website. Archives
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