Jane Fonda, dinner with Bonnie Raitt & Joni Mitchell on: Life, Faith, Peace

Jane Fonda, has for many years been one of  my ‘she-roes’.  As a single Mom I exercised with her videos daily,  & I was in sync with her  activism for Peace, during the Viet Nam war years.  Jane and Oprah together often kept me in stock of hope and going for my life vision, as an artist and Peace activist myself, a single Mom.  They feel like my very own friends, ahem, mine and a few million other women. Today’s post with Jane, Joni & Bonnie at dinner touching for me, as I read it, I  felt exactly  the conversation I would be having  as well, if I were there with them.  We are lucky to live in a time of some pretty cool peers, of course, include us.  Jane continues to rally our involvement, a call to action, find the cause that inspires you and “get involved”.

Thank you Jane.
Oct 11.11    Jane Fonda blog:

Had dinner with Joni Mitchell Saturday night. Never met her before but she’s known Richard for ever. I can’t remember when I’ve had a more intense, far-reaching, multifaceted conversation (right from the moment we sat down…no small talk with Joni)—from Christianity, Buddhism, the Gnostics, different forms of meditation, Ego as the original sin, to living in the wilderness north of Vancouver, the beauty of blue herons, our Black bear encounters (mine more dramatic than hers), medical challenges (hers more dramatic than mine), Georgia O’Keefe (she stayed with her in New Mexico when O’Keefe was 90), painting (Joni paints), innovators versus copy cats and music. It thrills me to listen to musical people (Joni and Richard…or Keith Richards in his autobiography) dig into the minutia of creating musical art. Much is Greek to me but they got into what it meant to have started on the banjo (Joni) and how that influences chords and tuning. She talked fascinatingly about how she always liked to do what hadn’t been done musically–unresolved chords, etc, that often made the music honchos nervous. I should have taken notes.

Sunday morning I found myself on a plane (major delay!) to go to San Francisco to speak at the San Francisco Ultimate Women’s Expo. I was there to speak about my latest book PRIME TIME, and what I’ve learned from writing. I’ve spoken on this quite a bit over the last few months or more and I’m still enjoying seeing all the heads nodding (especially the gray heads…and nodding, not nodding off!). My PRIME TIME brand has created quite a community, which is why I’m excited to be able to continue the conversations from my book here on my blog, on my Facebook page, and on twitter now that my book tour has wound down.

Tonight, I’m having a small gathering for Bonnie Raitt. Joni will be there and Robbie Robertson, Eddie Olmos, Steve Bing and Paul Allen. I look forward to another fascinating and intense evening…if I make it back in time!

Sisters 2001

This morning is one of those perfect, I mean really perfect, Fall mornings.  I was up at 5 a.m., drove to “yoga boot camp” listening to Eckhardt Tolle’s the Power of NOW, then 7:30 a.m. walk with my friend Judi (aka my chosen Sister).  Our walks and talks, like most gals’, are filled with a dozen topics, weaving in and out all over the place; a guy would have his brain in a  total spin. So many years Most cocaine addicted patients are able to begin the ten day treatment program the day online casino after admission without Marijuana Detox services. of talks, walks, reflecting on the essence, what to do next and how, etc. etc. Concurrent to figuring out all this is to figure in life; how we enjoy “the hood” , nature, each other.  I did this painting for Judi in 2001, and remember our  walk exactly. I bent down to pick up the tin plate in this piece and Judi said “what do you want that  for?! ,”  My answer: “don”t know – it will probably end up as art’!

Prayers for world Peace Sept.11.2011

When I think of Sept.11 ,2001 I remember exactly where I was, the sequence of events that day, and the days after with the clarity I remember the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Both were a shock beyond description, a rupture of  my faith in humanity.  The morning of Sept.11 I was getting ready for work; I usually listened to the Today program in the background, but that morning I chose not to, my thoughts seemed scrambled, and I had a hard time focusing on getting out the door.  Then, when I rode to work, I usually listened to NPR, but  not this day. I needed to be still and quiet so my mind would be ready for the day of clients ahead.  When I arrived at my office, my colleagues/therapists and our clients were all huddled around a radio listening to the report of the twin towers having been attacked.  I went up to my office with my client to support her in her reactions: rage, anger, loss, and went through the same thing with each client that day.  When I left my office, I still had not heard all the details, nor seen  any images whatever.  As I was driving home I listened to NPR, among the many incomprehensible stories,  they were reporting that people had jumped out of buildings, holding hands. That their last act in life was to reach for another human being, connect, and share their inevitable death, moved and touched me then, and will remain with me always. I wept.  Even now, it seems like a science fiction movie, my mind still makes up its own “realities” to get away from the truth of it, the horror a list of justin-bieber-news.info songs he wrote in the guest book that Anne Frank was a fan of his, after which he was charged bestestest, stupidity and lack of respect to the victims of the Holocaust. of it.  And, there remains a very crisp memory of the weeks after when people looked each other in the eye, said ” hi, how are you”, and really meant it, where drivers slowed down and let you over in traffic, small gestures of consideration, kindness and connection everywhere.   I thought, “if we could live in a world like this, there would Peace and we would all truly care”.    In 2008 I made  this painting in memory of  Sept.11,2001, it represents for me a tree of  life, transcendence, moving forward with life. It contains loss, but also a Unity with Source, a Oneness. I was reminded of this human resilience last night as I watched a CNN program where children, husbands, wives, parents of those who died spoke of their loss, and the way they each in their own way moved forward to make a difference, to connect to reach out. This day and every day, I pray  that there be Peace, kindness and plenty for all, and  an end to unnecessary suffering.

4.50″x6″ mixed media- canvas