Is it time for Vol. 3?
I've been thinking a great deal about "Peace from the Porch, Vol 3" lately. After taking a year off from Bear Creek Concerts, and slowly adding a few events to next year's schedule, I've decided it's definitely time to produce another community project piece.
However, this volume is feeling a little different. Instead of strictly producing a compilation CD of great independent music, I'm thinking of taking on a multi-media approach. I'd like to create a companion book that includes essays, short stories, poetry, photography and photographs of paintings and sculptures by musicians, local artists and photographers.
I'm also going to be a little self-serving with this volume. I've always funded 100% of the Peace from the Porch Project. I'm able to do that because I have a good job working for an outstanding non-profit rural hospice. However, the future of healthcare funding is not looking good for the hospice industry. The teetering economy is not looking good for non-profit hospices. The very intense model of care that my agency runs is in peril. It is part of our mission to provide our patients twice as many nursing visits as most hospices. The holistic approach to our industry's philosophy is greatly intensified here in this little hospice office in La Grange, Texas. Our bereavement counselor has an open door policy and anyone in this area - regardless of whether their family used our hospice or not - can stop by and get intense one on one grief support. Most rural hospices are limited to occasional group settings for the bereaved. Staff and volunteers mow lawns, fix air conditioners, build ramps, take people shopping. Our social worker makes sure that food is in the cupboard for patients who live in poverty. We provide medicine and medical equipment and supplies. This is an open, innovative team of nurses, counselors, social workers, hospice care aides, and volunteers that could rival any urban philosophy. This team is beloved by it's community, but we may have no choice but to get by with bare minimums required by our industry if we can't find a way to bring in extra funding. We don't want to see free programming (like children's grief camp and community memorial services) go away. We don't want to stop art workshops that allow people to explore and express their pain in a creative way. We want to continue to send our care aides into nursing homes to help dying patients eat and bathe. We don't want to become very technical and clinical. Suffering would no longer be seen as existential and spiritual. It would simply be the evidence based science that our Medicare is willing to pay for.
Each of us experiences death, loss and grief in our lives. These are all part of suffering, and everyone of us will do that. It's always been my mission with Peace from the Porch to do my best to eliminate suffering while spreading joy through music. If little rural hospices, like the one here in La Grange, cease to exist, people living in rural areas will lose access to high quality compassionate care. It's this little town that helped inspire The Peace from the Porch Project. You have no idea how much this community's sick and dying have fueled this project through the years. They are the ones closest to the mystery of life. To the source, to God, to the infinite. You feel it in the warmth of a 101 year old hand. You see it in eyes that smile in spite of terrific pain. You hear it as the last peaceful breath leaves the room. Years ago - before I had a real grasp of what hospice is - I had a chaplain tell me this about death and God. "It's not what you think it is."
I asked, "is it good?"
She said, "no."
I asked, "is it bad?"
She said, "no. you cannot even think it. your little human brain can't think it, but I have seen glimpses of it, and it is mind blowing."
So it's time do what we can to make sure that this very special little town in Texas continues to be cherished and loved. As our friends and loved ones die, I think they deserve one last curtain call. We can produce that in art, words and music. We can take what we earn from this effort and give it back to Hospice Brazos Valley. If we're really successful, then we can find other rural non-profit hospices and help them, too. But I've got to take care of my own. I haven't done that historically, and now it's time to support one of the most compassionate missions in the country.
I've often told you musicians that I didn't want any money for helping you with bookings, promotion, sound, transportation or a place to stay because there would be a way to pay me back one day. That day is here. All of those resources come from the work I do at this little hospice. I hope you'll find some inspiration in what this team of compassionate professionals does each day.
If you're an artist of any form, and you're reading this, think about something you can create or have created that would be an expression of what it means to experience death, grief and loss. It could be a joyful piece. It could be profound. It could be a reflection of the pain and loss. All of these things help us transcend and enlighten us. Even the most painful places in our lives should be honored with transcendent beauty.
When people are the most broken, they come through our door here in La Grange. They come with the hope that we will help them live out their lives with quality and the freedom to live and love they way they always did. Your expression will become a part their lives.
So think about it.
What do you want to offer to "Peace from the Porch, Vol. 3 - The Curtain Call."