Things that blow my hair back

There have been plenty of items in the news these days to make my hair stand on end, so I liked to pause for a moment to reflect on a few things that blow my hair back. A few things that fill me with a sense of awe.

For starters, my hair was blown back by the voice of mezzo Sarah Larsen when she sang "Deep River" last Sunday. Sarah's just here from New York for a couple of months. If you're anywhere near the Seattle area, listen up. Sarah Larsen is giving a recital through the Seattle Art Song Society with accompanist Elisabeth Ellis and tenor Eric Neuville this Friday, July 28, 7:30 p.m. at Queen Anne Christian Church, 1316 3rd Avenue West, Seattle, WA, 98119. More details here.

A few other things that blow my hair back:

• my sister-in-law Cheri is 3-scans cancer-free after struggling through a diagnosis of nodular melanoma last year.
• son George just passed the 1,000 mile mark on the Pacific Crest Trail
• Coffeetown Press has accepted my memoir "How We Survive Here: Families across time," the story of my quest to trace my ancestry, due out in 2018 
• this coming September I'll be studying writing at Moniack Mhor Writing Centre near Inverness in Scotland with authors Amanda Smyth, Paul Murray, and Jane Harris

For it all, I feel a sense of fathomless gratitude.