One day after performing for a large crowd at a Christmas concert, “Embrace the Season” sponsored by the United Baptist Church in Saco, Maine. I am keenly aware of the musicians with heart who comprised the “& Friends” portion of “Jennifer Comeau & Friends”.

I decided to share my introduction notes with you. I hope you can imagine them jamming in our final songs, “Go Tell it On the Mountain” and my own, “3AM Blues“. Their music is still ringing joyously in my ears.

Heartfelt thanks to these very good teachers and Friends!

Jen’s Notes from the concert:

These talented musicians make my job so easy – and lots of fun. Please help me show my appreciation for them. Mickey Roache on lead guitar (among the many instruments he plays) is not only a huge talent, but he has a gentle heart and has been a guitar mentor for me. Maker of flutes and now, of beautiful silver jewelry; suburban farmer, and knower of all things music, the multi-talented, Mickey Roache!

Michael McNerney – the man behind those drums – is not only a classically trained percussionist and great friend, but he owns Port Media recording studio and co-produced my CD, “Feed the Tribe” The man makes me laugh, helps hold us in tempo better than anyone I know, and is a great friend – Michael McNerney!

“The “rock”, as we call him, John Comeau is on bass. He is a multi-dimensional man of intellect and heart. “Holder of my kite string” and man of my dreams, I’m a lucky girl. And I can’t tell you how much fun it is to share the natural high of music with him – together learning, together finding new ways to express our joy. Thank you – John Comeau!

Wiley Beveridge is a man who has exacting musical standards when playing piano and yet has an amazing ability to be loose and fun in his delivery. That is a sign of a true professional who someone you definitely want to make music with. It is Wiley’s beautiful song, “You Are Welcome Here” that I listen to over and over just before a concert. His music comforts, inspires and makes us grateful to be in his world. Wiley Beveridge!

I am grateful to have my friend, talented vocalist and Union Church leader, Ada Goff “in the house” tonight. You know in the intensity of seeking to create the best song arrangements, it is not only talent that I seek. It is a certain kind of spirit. A spirit of genuine appreciation for music, of kinship and mutual respect and most importantly, a recognition that something HOLY is at work in the making of music. The belief that music transforms everyday moments into magical ones. Ada Goff is a personification of this spirit. Thank you, Ada Goff!

I am delighted to welcome Mary Kennedy to this event. Mary is the real deal — continuing her extensive musical training in Flute and Saxophone with a Masters Degree from Longy School of Music in Cambridge and is being mentored in jazz improvisation by the great Charlie Benacus. A therapist by day, Mary has certainly provided the coolest musical therapy to our group. Thank you, Mary Kennedy!

I am sure these musicians would love to hear your comments and posts about the concert. In a few emails and phone calls today, I have heard:

• We’re all still high after last night’s concert performance! Fantastic job!!!
• The concert was fabulous! You all did a fantastic job and can be immensely proud of yourselves. Thanks you for all the had work to put this together, it seemed effortless to all of us (but we know it is really a lot of work!) KUDOS to all of you.
• Your voice is a great pleasure to listen to.
• It was great!
• That Mickey can make a guitar sound like no one else!
• Peter came home with raves!!
• We thoroughly enjoyed your concert. It was worth the wait! Just consider us among your “groupies”. Wherever you play, we will show up.
• Mary Kennedy was on fire! What a talent!
• Your concert was so much fun!! The songs you write are beautiful, and the voices and instruments blend so well together. Thanks to you and “your friends” for great entertainment.
• Wiley Beveridge is like a tuxedo with tails for your group - high class!

Note: To listen to the song One Constellation.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of spending a weekend camping with girls 5 - 16 years old as part of a local Maine Girl Scout “camporee”. I was the staring attraction for Saturday evening, with tired but expectant girls arriving at a large campfire just as darkness descended. Mind you, I couldn’t compete with the traditional “smores” that were planned, and tried to keep my guitar away from all that — GOO — while 60-some girls went to and fro the roaring fire with marshmallows in various darkened stages. It began to be funny, this “keeping the guitar safe”, with the scout leaders joining in and forming a wall of safety.

At long last, satiated by sweets, the girls settled in to soak up the warmth of a fire and share song and story.

I began with some songs everyone knew. For example, “The Bear Song” (”The other day, I met a bear. A great big bear, in the woods out there….”) I fear those of you who know this song will not be able to sleep tonight as it will be playing over and over in your head. Sorry! Others: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, and “On Top of Spaghetti”….

Next, each troop offered a song of their own. Quite a delight.

Finally, my troop leader contact, Karen Hinchliffe, began to ask me some questions about the art of songwriting. “Which comes first, the melody or the words?”. I turned it back to the girls and asked them: Have you ever made up a song in your head? Which comes first? As with many things in life, it is never predictable and always different. Sometimes a phrase haunts me for days and then suddenly emerges as a melody and song. Sometimes a melody pops into my head seeking words. (I’ve been working on one dynamite blues melody that came to me — still don’t *feel* the emotion enough to convert to a song with lyrics!)

Next, she asked me, “Can you help us write a song?”. Why yes! I said, swallowing hard. Why not? And so I described that all songs are fundamentally written about “what you know”. In that approach, lies authenticity and truth. So, given this weekend’s theme of Astronomy, I asked them to think about what they’ve done or learned that they might want to write about.

And so it began. One girl boldly offered that “We’re all stars in the sky.” So, I strummed some common chords: G, C, D. Then, I advised that most songs, though not all, rhymed. So, we want to rhyme with the word, “sky”, I urged. From the fire lit darkness I heard a voice, “How about, ‘One Constellation…um, uh, … ‘ And then another voice, “Way up high!”.

And in that moment, a song began. It is a simple song, exactly the right kind for sitting around a campfire. But the theme — about each of us being different in our own special way AND at the same time being a part of One Constellation — carried with it a wisdom greater than our own. The experience of creating something unique in the world was enchanting. So much so, that the Girl Scouts decided they wanted to record the song. And so, we now have a beautiful version — recorded at Port-Media, with Michael McNerney, the co-Producer of my own CD, Feed the Tribe.

I leave you with a note from my good friend and wonderful scout leader, Karen in her email to the troops:

A very special thanks to the generosity the following people showed us in sharing their many gifts and talents with us today in studio to create: One Constellation (2008) Recorded and produced by Michael McNerney (www.port-media.com) with Mickey Roache (acoustic guitar), John Comeau (bass guitar) and our own angelic star singer/songer Jennifer Comeau (www.jennifercomeau.com) who co-wrote this song with us during Girl Scouts of Maine at a Machigonne Neighborhood Camporee and who today directed 20 “nex-jen-ers” from Troops 1700, 1712, 1921 and 2166.

I left a very large consulting client in March for two reasons:

Reason Number One: The work there no longer served me. That is, it did not stretch or challenge me in a way that gave meaning to my life (Note: I even wrote a song about it: Reference: “Baltimore” on my music CD.); and Reason Number Two: I wanted time to launch the CD properly and afterward, to grow and expand my personal retreat business.

So here I am in the afterward. For the first time since March, it hit me. What I have traded away to follow my heart has a value in the six-figures.

Does that feel heroic or just plain foolish? Depends upon when you catch me with that question. Today I wonder: What if I had continued to earn that money and taken a goodly part of it to give to my two philanthropic causes? They would have LOTS more money sooner than it will take for me to sell my music CDs and give them the proceeds. In that light, it indeed seems foolish.

And yet.

There’s Reason Number One to remember. Finding meaning in my work is all about a desire not to be a statistic. In a Cornell study of Varieties of Regret, most of us, about 70%, expressed regrets of INACTION when looking back on life. That is, steps not taken, things not done. Do you want to be one of those people? I certainly don’t. It’s what drives me to move through my fears and ignore the mind chatter that wants to tell me how foolish I was for leaving that large client.

What will be the price tag I am able to put on a life well lived? I imagine myself an old woman. My toothless smile stretches widely as I sit rocking in a chair, arms folded over my ratty blue sweater. I am a trifle smug, knowing that upon waking up in my forties, I didn’t cop out. I didn’t sell my soul. Knowing that I kept putting myself out there and being open to whatever appears.

And then there’s Reason Number Three: My music gets to live in the world. Each song is, in my view, a being – alive with story and emotion, vibrating in its own resonance. Each song can change our hearts, can shift us to a new place of awareness or understanding. And what a thrill it is to know with each purchase of a CD or an mp3 download, another person receives the product of my creation (or more aptly put: “The product of the Divine blowing into me the words and music I claim as my own”). Now that’s priceless.

So here I am today, feeling steadfast in this afterward. Yes, I’ve reefed in my spending sails a bit. No, I do not know what stormy seas await. Nor do any of us, be we doing meaningful work or otherwise.

I look into his youthful 71 year old face as he says, “The hardest part is getting quiet, isn’t it?” This, in response to my informing him that I too am a creative type: A singer-songwriter with a debut CD, Feed the Tribe. A CD only weeks off the injection molding replication machines.

Oh yes, Martin. Over and over again it’s the hardest part. He reaches into his knapsack and carefully selects a poem: Blue Lesson.

An excerpt: “how to come home again and again with what look like empty hands, the gift – and there is one, even when I don’t see, don’t listen – how to hold this nothing, loving its flavor, the scent”.[1]

Thank you, Martin Steingesser for your gift of beauty and insight.

On the heels of completing the artistic accomplishment of a music CD (a huge undertaking), and what by many accounts would be considered a successful launch – sold out CD Release, songs played on four local radio stations, and press galore – I am asking, “Now What?” And experiencing unsettledness, a lack of certainty about the ways my music is manifesting for some greater good. In short: I have to get quiet and BE, letting go the drive to DO for just a little while.

One would think I’d be better at getting quiet after experiencing the richness and honesty that emerges as a result. Songs have poured out of me at times like these, where I am simply holding the pen and staying out of the way. Why is it always a struggle to get to that wellspring, I muse. Because your mind fears what your inner voice will say. It doesn’t have control over that source. Bingo!

Perhaps it is because I crave the wisdom that lies there – in spite of how difficult it is to receive at times – that I host a retreat workshop entitled, “An Exploration with Women at the Edge”. It is a time-out-of-time experience with women who are pushing their own comfort zones; women who are changing the world in the way they uniquely can.

During the workshop, we explore what it means to hold the nothing — the not yet manifested — with intent and allowing. With grace. Or at least we TRY! As a host, I am also a full participant. Like the lead climbers on Himalayan mountain expeditions, I still have to do the work myself, even though I’ve done it before and I have a map of the terrain. Sometimes I’m better at it than others. One thing is for certain: I’m still learning to get quiet, to love the flavor of nothing.