Never Turning Back (by Pat Humphries) - Performed by Judy Small

The picture on my profile here is from early 2010.  I have been through so very much grief and just plain spiritual growth (ongoing) but the sun here in Florida has really taken a toll on my body.  All and all, even with all of the scary crap going on around us now...I am still very happy to be alive in these times, on this planet and feel so very blessed to have lived in beautiful places in Ohio, Kentucky, California, Indiana, Vermont, Oregon, Tennesee, and Texas and here now in the land of many rivers. 
All of those places had me meeting just plain INCREDIBLE people. And for that, I will be eternally GRATEFUL.

A poem by one of my favorite poets, Susan Griffin
"Love should grow up like a wild iris in the fields,
unexpected, after a terrible storm, opening a purple
mouth to the rain, with not a thought to the future,
ignorant of the grass and the graveyard of leaves
around, forgetting its own beginning. Love should
grow like a wild iris
but does not.
Love more often is to be found in kitchens at the dinner hour,
tired out and hungry, lingers over table in houses where
the walls record movements; while the cook is probably
angry,
and the ingredients of the meal are budgeted, while
a child cries feed me now and her mother not quite
hysterical says over and over, wait just a bit, just a bit
love should grow up in the fields like a wild iris
but never does
really startle anyone, was to be expected, was to be
predicted, is almost absurd, goes on from day to day, not
quite
blindly, gets taken to the cleaners every fall, sings old
songs over and over, and falls on the same piece of rug that
never gets tacked down, gives up, wants to hide, is not
brave, knows too much, is not like an
Iris growing wild but more like
staring into space
in the street
not quite sure
which door it was, annoyed about the sidewalk being
Slippery, trying all the doors, thinking
If love wished the world to be well, it would be well.
Love should
grow up like a wild iris, but doesn’t, it come from
the midst of everything else, sees like the iris
of an eye, when the light is right,
feels in blindness and when there is nothing else is
tender, blinks, and opens
face up to the skies.

How/why the Kate Wolf Festival was my idea.....

I remember walking through the rain in Austin, Texas on December 10, 1986 when Kate Wolf died. John Aielli, the dj who was greatly responsible for introducing all of us Austinites to Kate Wolf and her music (via one of the greatest npr stations of all time.....wkut) played her music his entire shift. I walked with my walkman through some Austin Parks and Rec hotel function/training, mourning the loss of this great spirit and cried.

Kate and her music stayed with me through several moves back and forth and finally had me riding my bike through the town of Mendocino on my 1989 bicycle tour of the Pacific Coast. Everywhere in that town and on the “coast of California” that summer I would ask people if they knew her and knew the songs she had left all of us, especially about their town.

Later living in the Redwoods in The Santa Cruz Mountains, I bought her songbook and taught myself to play Give Yourself to Love, The Red Tail Hawk and Green Eyes on a guitar that was given to me by my Uncle Barry. Those years I tried to share with all of the kids and fellow Environmental Educator/Naturalist types surrounding me, this love of her music and these songs. In the spring of 1994 I moved to Occidental, California and shared this music with the same at Caritas Creek E.E.
 

In October of 1994 I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer as I had a grapefruit sized tumor on my right ovary. I did the surgery to have it removed on 10/31/94 and while on the morphine had the following dream: I was walking with Kate Wolf. I was holding a crystal bowl or chalice and I had on a beautiful white robe. At the time I took this to mean that I would be just fine.

The following year I took a job as a Recreation Specialist/Night time rec center supervisor/Special Events coordinator with the Santa Rosa Rec and Parks dept. While looking over old files for both Finley and Steele Rec Ctrs, I came across beautiful black and white photos of Kate and she had apparently played there at Steele when she was still alive.

I had been a big fan of public radio since college in Morehead, Kentucky and while living in Sonoma Co , discovered Cloud Moss and his radio station there. At that time, looking over those photos I had the idea to have another concert, a ten year anniversary of her departure and this time to specifically benefit Public Radio and that station in western Sonoma Co.

So I got on the phone and called the Institute of Musical Arts in Bodega to ask them to put me in touch with Nina Gerber so that I could get this idea moving forward. I pictured her, utah phillips, Joanne Rand and a plethora of musicians living there at the time...singing different Kate Wolf songs. 
 

I pitched the entire idea several times into their voice mail (box)…trying to get them…and Nina on board with the idea before I pitched it to the (then) director of SRRP special events, Debbie ( last name forgotten )

who was the supervisor to my spec events super Kelley Magnuson.

Neither the IMA nor Nina Gerber ever returned my call.

So I pitched it anyway, to the aforementioned supervisor, Debbie who proceeded to tell me that no one had ever even heard of Kate Wolf and she was certain that we would never be able to make any money from it...so my idea was killed. Or was it?

A year or so later (maybe less) Cloud Moss and friends started the Kate Wolf Festival. I am sure it has by now made millions. Maybe Debbie knows who Kate Wolf is/was now. The big irony is…while still living in Sonoma County and working myriad jobs to just be able to stay there (ee provided free housing) I could never afford to go to it myself. I have never wanted monetary KICKBACK OR anything for this idea...just the acknowledgment that it was my IDEA.
 

Thank the Great Spirit,God/dess that the intention and the outcome are the same.

More and more people, hundreds of thousands of folks, now know about the life and music of one, Kate Wolf. And I sure do hope that some of those millions made (indeed ) went to public radio, especially KRCB.

Kate Wolf & Nina Gerber 'These times we're living in_HQ.mov

Celebrate The Rain returning to La Florida!!!!

a front porch for 4 boys......