i am standing on the creosote-smelling dock at Cultas Lake near Vancouver, BC. it is July 22nd, 1971, my 12th birthday and my friends thought it funny to throw me into the lake upon awakening. i was thrashing in their arms, screaming, as they manhandled me down the stairs of the cabin and tossed me off the dock in my pj’s. remember those with the trap door at the back of them?

an old rattlin’ snake, a sonoran sidewinder, came worming up Andante’s and Gale’s driveway at Superstition Mountain Resort the other day. was the snake attracted to their spiritual energy? the dedicated field agents of the Apache Junction Snake Removal relocated it to the open desert.

not so at the bonfire meeting i went to last week. the boys got rid of that one in a hurry – chopped its’ head off and threw it in the back of their pickup where an hour later, i saw it still gyrating.

my book launch at Changing Hands was a really rich experience. i am so grateful to all my friends, to new friends and many writers who showed up for the open mic following my reading. La Frontera Trauma Healing Services have asked me to read from under the influence at their Take Back the Night Rally and March in the Phoenix Civic Space Park. i really appreciate men and women  who share their courageous struggles to help us heal.

and Mr. Quinton Prunty, my young artiste friend from the hood, whipped the video of me singing at the Women’s March on Washington at the Capital in Phoenix onto my website. check out the sights, i mean the site, at catmacmusic.com.

this Sunday is the Superstition Mountain Resort Memorial Rememberance and Plaque Dedication. all of the women who have passed away here in the past 30 years will have their names read out and the gong will sound. eight new plaques will be put in the wall for the women who have crossed over this year, at the end of the dog run of pink stone under lodgepole pine.

we come here to be kids again, to recapture the joy we felt at summer camp. games week starts here tomorrow with scrabble, darts, badminton, pingpong, ladder ball, the talent show and the sock hop. we can get through anything in community when we remember to play and nurture ourselves. like pop over to the hot tub. gosh, it’s good to be alive again, i mean, a kid again!