Tag: Music

Blog-Wig Out

March 23, 2020

I was still fresh into the new year when I had my first almost wig-out as I left the house.

You have a routine. I do too. But routine is different than rhythm. We each have a personal wave of music within us, it’s our signature of how we move. I am not a sprinter. I have always been a long distance runner, hiker and one day (help!), a swimmer too. I’m immersive. I descend. I climb. I rest and reflect on the flat parts.

When I remember that, my days are easier for me. I can find the sweet spot I am made as rather than reach for.

There is no sweet spot.

We ARE the sweet spot.

This year I’m unpacking and unpinning the habitual pattern I’ve created which is NOT my rhythm, but has been my pattern for years called: muther f*k’r panic and pandemonium as I leave the house.

I haven’t changed my timing yet, which I may, but not yet.

I am changing what I honour. This year my word is devotion. I am devoted to living.

Punctuated panic reminds me… oooops, take a breath of love Tina. Take a moment of air. Take a second… have a second of devotion. Like mini prayers of yes.

Mini prayers of yes.

I like the sound of that.

This is my hair flying down the hill as I’m almost, but not, running for the boat. I even managed to consciously chat with my son before I dropped him at school.

So much so that he hugged me (like he initiated) before he left me for the day.

Meanwhile I was rummaging through my bag and muttering… damn… where’s my wallet? Did I forget my wallet? Oh no… but I didn’t, it was on the seat.

That was a 7 out of 10 rhythm morning with just a titch of panic. Not bad.

I am devoted to living.

Nailin’ it this year..

Tina Overbury is a core-communications specialist who works with individuals and organizations who feel called. She is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Story Stones, TinaO’s weekly online gathering of listening in to sacred stories. Tina is a proud associate of PowHERhouse media where she listens and supports the ‘stories’ of whole and integrated leaders of tomorrow. 

If you would like to know more about Tina’s approach to story, click here. 



There’s a Crack in Everything

March 3, 2016
Stupid There's a Crack
A lot of my work- and the work of music writers/ journalists / bloggers who’ve been kind enough to write about it- focuses on the hardships I faced as a child, teen and early adult. Why that is isn’t a mystery. Intense situations and struggles are the stuff of drama. They push us past normal and safe where we feel in control into the painful and chaotic realm of trauma, but that’s also where beauty, transformation, love, mystery, compassion and profound connections can swoop in to reveal who we really are and what we’re really capable of. As Leonard Cohen sings:
“There is a crack, a crack in everything 
That’s how the light gets in.”
A mentor of mine who passed away ago a few years ago used to say to me “When I need to touch God Rodney I touch you.” He wasn’t referring to me specifically, he meant that reaching out to others, sometimes for help, sometimes to help was where he truly found himself over and over again.
While I had to deal with a lot of pain as a child and an adult, I’ve also been extremely fortunate. I’ve had many generous and gifted people come into my life to guide me. It’s crazy how lucky I’ve been. It’s like in Greek myths how the hero (or in my case the anti-hero) keeps getting helped by mysterious strangers (the gods in disguise) when he or she needs it most. A folksinger I know, Rick Keating, has a lyric in a song that says “I keep on getting saved.” Yep.

Rodney DecrooRebecca Blissett Photo
Rodney DecrooRebecca Blissett Photo

GONE
by Rodney DeCroo

My first apartment was a basement suite
near 41st and Oak. The owner Craig,
a drug dealer turned contractor
after a five year stint in Okalla,
rented cheaply to young men
in trouble. I found the place
through an ad on the wall
in the Social Assistance office.
The interview was in his kitchen.

“Come on!” he says “Have something to eat!”
when Diane asked if I was hungry.
I hadn’t eaten for two days
after spending my money getting drunk
at the Cobalt, but I told him
“No, I don’t want anything”.
“Listen,” he said “you’re not leaving this kitchen
until you’ve had one of Diane’s sandwiches.
So what’s it gonna be?”
“Okay, sure.”
“There you go! he shouted smacking the table.
“Are you looking for work?”
“Yes”.
I’m looking for laborers. You want to work for me?”
“Okay.”

As I ate the thick bread and rich meat
and drank the dark coffee offered to me,
I felt the hunger in my stomach,
my unwashed clothes and my shaking hands
as if for the first time. After he left me
in the furnished suite, I stood with my back
against the door looking at the room.
I wondered who’d been here before me
and why they were gone.

Rodney Stupid Boy

 

FYI… Rodney has two gigs coming up in Vancouver.  

Check it out below.

MARCH 6 / House Concert @ Cliff’s House

Catch this intimate solo set from Rodney DeCroo, with support from The Minimalist Jug Band.

Time:     Doors 1pm / Show 2-4pm
Where:  # 2-868 Cassiar Street East Van ( near PNE )
Cost:     Suggested donation of $15.  Ticket reservations are recommended by the host as seating is limited.
Contact: kali@tonicrecords.com for reservation details.
Drink:    BYOB ( please drink responsibly )
Food:   Tasty finger foods provided

MARCH 10 / “A Circle in the Fire” @ The Heatley
 
Rodney DeCroo will be hosting and performing in the first event of a new monthly series, “A Circle in the Fire”, a songwriters-in-the-round evening. This evening will  feature an eclectic mix of local folk songwriters + performers: Doug Andrews, Elise Hall-Meyer, and Caroline Allatt.
Date:     Thursday, March 10th
Time:     8:00pm
Where:  696 E Hastings St.
Cost:     No cover!

 

 

Rodney DeCroo is a songwriter, poet and playwright. He has released 6 full-length albums, an album of poetry set to music (Allegheny), a book of poetry (Allegheny, BC) and a theatre production (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) that received critical acclaim at several Canadian fringe and writers festivals. DeCroo wrestles with regret, loss, aging, love, memory, death, art—always with his own ongoing recovery embedded in the background. DeCroo’s album and performances draw upon his greatest natural resource—his poetry.

Want to buy his music?  Find him here on itunes.  Want to catch him in concert?  Check out his calendar here.