Prayer For The Forests - A Video Preview

Peak experience
Autumn leaves remind me to
Surrender to Grace

#PrayerHaiku #PianoPrayer

As I wandered the forests on Election Day 2020, I could feel the angst that has been my nearly constant companion start to soften … mercifully, gracefully. I watched silently as a leaf, burgeoning with brilliant color and beauty, surrendered itself completely to the wind as its last act before returning to the nurturing soil from which it came.

And today, as we look across a threshold unlike any I can recall in this lifetime, I am renewing my commitment to share as much love, beauty and kindness as I can while I’m still blessed by each breath Grace gives me in her boundless, generous Love.

May I give myself to love, truth, kindness, compassion and beauty with the same priceless abandon as each falling leaf surrounding me in my forest reverie. In the same way that these leaves give me the gift of timeless beauty in their transition, may I always remember, as my friend Sharon Gannon puts it so succinctly, “to honor the beauty of life by being kind.”

With this in mind, I’d like to share a musical reflection of this beauty today in a short video preview excerpt of my upcoming piano release, “Prayer For The Forests.” It’s my hope and prayer that it might afford you a glimpse of beauty and a moment of peace in this time of great turbulence, doubt and division.

My endless gratitude goes out to Julian Cartwright (violins and violas), Jami Sieber (cello), and Nancy Rumbel (oboe) who have truly transformed this piece. I’m hoping to have the final arrangement released in mid-November 2020.

I send my love out to you all, and will be praying (and playing) for the forests, the earth, and all the beings we share it with as we navigate this transition together.

#PrayerForTheForests