Home sweet home

I used to live in the land of "what's next?" What is going to happen tomorrow? Will I get a phone call that will change my life? Is the public going to hear my music or read my blog or go to You tube and watch my video? I know, hidden amongst all of the million other singer/songwriters and their thoughts of "What's next?" Will some rich philanthropist fund the next well for the orphans whom I so love and for whom I write the music and do the work.
 So the past few weeks I have been blessed with some pretty neat stuff for a gal like me. I won the Independent country music award Folk artist of the year! My sweet man ran up the stairs and jumped up and down on the bed hollering "you won!" I was given a lot of shout outs and a plaque or a statue of something is coming and talk of an awards show in Nashville and a radio rotation for my song River High (The one I wrote in the dawns early light after a night from hell) Yea, art comes with a lot of suffering. I was interviewed on the "American Perspective" by a journalist who has interviewed Maya Angelo and Michael Jackson. They called her the "Italian Oprah" In the past I have been filmed and pampered and back lit and special taped to pull back the waddle under my chin. You know basic "star" for a day kind of stuff. Over the years with the help of a lot of friends I have raised over $48,000. for orphan work in Africa. I guess when you cross a certain number people start to pay attention which is fine by me because the whole point of the music and the writing and the marketing is for them. Little wonderful kids without parents who pray every night for food and a place to lay their head. I found my life's work in those babies and I pray to be the answer to some child's prayer.
One thing I have noticed in my life of up's and downs is that there comes a time after the television lights or the radio interview or the book signings or hearing your song on the radio when life becomes "my" life again. I wander around my house without makeup and my hair under a baseball cap and my garden boots are on my stocking feet with a bathrobe over the top and I water the gardens and I muck the horse stall and I weed the walkway and I do laundry and listen to the sounds of Bach in my boom box and I hear my dog snore under my feet and I get centered in GOD who lives with me at our little farm. I have never felt so thankful of the blessings around me as I do now. Thankful for it all. So very thankful and I am learning to live right here right now and just breathe in the moment and notice every little thing that I have come to know as home.