The Frog Pond Archives -

The Face of Love

By Simone Lipscomb | December 8, 2014

The sand is cold from a night of darkness. Starlight is still embedded in the crystalline grains. It lingers as the gathering orange orb peeks from behind dark, gray clouds. Lunar fullness…madness… seeps into my bare feet as I walk along the shore, chilled from a wintery morning.

The pre-dawn excursion gave me time and space to freely open to the creative impulse working within and through me. I came away with a synthesis of revelations of late.

Recently, in my morning meditations, I have asked for one-sentence seeds of wisdom to begin the day. Yesterday it was this:

Throughout the day I contemplated this statement and felt a deeper opening in my heart…and a Buddhist story came to mind. It goes something like this…

An abbot of a monastery sought a replacement. The test given to monks who applied for the position was to stand against hungry ghosts…legions of them. Bravery, courage and wisdom was needed. One by one, they were defeated as they wielded weapons and used defensive maneuvers. Finally, a monk calmly stood ready to face the test. Rather than hold weapons or stand in a defensive posture, the monk remained calmed and opened himself, allowing all the hungry ghosts to pass straight through. By not holding on or clinging to defensiveness, he passed the test and thus possessed the wisdom to become the new abbot.

It’s possible, while trying to maintain an open heart, to become defensive and protective of it as there will be those who are threatened by such joy, such happiness and they will make attempts to put down the light being emitted. Yet those ‘hungry ghosts’ have nothing on which to attach if we remain open, undefended, allowing pure joy and love to flow through.

As Pema Chodron wrote, “To experience something that liberates us from the narrow minded-ness of our biases and preconceptions is truly wondrous.”

“Don’t worry about results; just open your heart in an inconceivably big way, in that limitless way that benefits everyone you encounter,” wrote Chodron. Yesterday’s meditation included a vision where I climbed through a castle onto the top of it and went on the high roof. As I stood in the winds of this sacred place I saw a light approaching from the distance and heard a deep voice in my mind. Light the beacon, stay open, I am coming. So in the vision I took a torch and lit a huge light and knew that in reality I was lighting my heart’s light..and it would be my task to keep that sacred light burning brightly. There was no other task necessary.

SimoneLipscomb (16) — *Doobie and Bucket understand the value of basking in the sun…it’s where most of their wisdom is gleaned.*

Yesterday at The Frog Pond Sunday Social, a gathering of musicians and music-lovers who come together to create community, I basked in the winter sun as the musicians warmed up. As I faced the sun and closed my eyes I reflected back to the meditative vision and allowed the light of my heart to meet that of the sun and heard the deep voice in my mind once again….stay open.

After over half-a-century of exploring what love is and more specifically what it is not…I have come to realize that love is the only ‘thing’ that matters. It’s not romantic love or sexual love…although that can be an expression of it…it’s the stuff that comes from having an open heart that breathes-in love, exhales love and in the middle finds a way to experience sheer joy and compassion just for the experience. That’s what I’ve gotten to thus far.

This is the face of pure joy, pure happiness….this then is the face of love.

And this is the face of love……

“When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space. Your world seems less solid, more roomy and spacious. The burden lightens. In the beginning it might feel like sadness or a shaky feeling, accompanied by a lot of fear, but your willingness to feel the fear, to make fear your companion, is growing. You’re willing to get to know yourself at this deep level. After awhile this same feeling begins to turn into a longing to raze all the walls, a longing to be fully human and to live in your world without always having to shut down and close off when certain things come along. It begins to turn into a longing to be there for your friends when they’re in trouble, to be of real help to this poor, aching planet. Curiously enough, along with this longing and this sadness and this tenderness, there’s an immense sense of well-being, unconditional well-being, which doesn’t have anything to do with pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, hope or fear, disgrace or fame. It’s something that simply comes to you when you feel that you can keep your heart open.” Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are.

May we all be the face…the embodiment…of love.

Magic Cauldron

By Simone Lipscomb | September 29, 2014

Opening concert of the Frog Pond season and the torrential rainfall, the flash floods, the get-out-your-waders event simply didn’t happen, at least not in Silverhill, Alabama. Where there’s good juju perhaps the storms stay away just long enough for friends to come together after a long summer break to celebrate music, life and all things good.

Willie Sugarcapps opened the season and it seemed especially potent given that it is the group’s birthplace. This group is an example of the kind of magic that happens on the back porch stage at Blue Moon Farm.

Reconnecting with friends, with the music we all love, is a wondrous thing. But it goes beyond that. It’s as if the land itself welcomed us all back…the musicians and music-lovers so the spirit of community was sparkling and evident by smiles, hugs, singing coming from under the tent. We had a revival all right…a revival of the love of music and each other.

If you don’t go, you just won’t know….how sweet the spirit of friendship and the common love of music creates a place of happiness and joy. Witnessing the coming together of musicians sharing new songs, performing them for the first time together, shows us all the potent creative process in action. A lesson not to be ignored.

On a personal note, there’s sometimes a song that goes straight to my heart and creates an opening. Sometimes we all need reminding of the light within….or the star within. Thanks Brother Will…and all the members of Willie Sugarcapps for bringing their hearts and creative spirits to the Frog Pond. You all show us magic in action. And to Cathe Steel…you provide a container for this magic to happen. So thanks for stirring the cauldron of creativity and inviting us all to witness the beauty.

Soul Full of Music

By Simone Lipscomb | April 16, 2014

SimoneLipscomb (7) — *Corky Hughes, Grayson Capps, Bill Kirchen, Will Kimbrough, Webb Wilder at The Frog Pond*

The morning began with a journey through my musical past as I pondered a question posed by a Facebook friend: What are your twenty most favorite albums? Music seemed to rush into my mind as did experiences and places where specific melodies and rhythms brought to life emotions from long ago.

SimoneLipscomb (4) — *Savana Lee Crawford*

For hours I thought about music and the powerful role it has played in my life…from beginning piano lessons at age seven through a lifetime of relationship with various instruments and of course listening, dancing, living to tunes created by those gifted souls whose lyrics, melodies and emotions have touched me, changed me, guided me.

SimoneLipscomb (8) — *Corky Hughes, Grayson Capps, Will Kimbrough*

Art and beauty expressed as emotions…harmonies…rhythms…melodies.

As I reflected on favorite albums I found the melodies intertwined in experiences packed with emotions. Many revolved around the time I was coming into my own person as a late teen/young adult. I remember an ELO concert that was simply mind-blowing with their laser lights bouncing off the strings of the cello. Or the Santana concert which left me with ringing ears for days…but the power of Carlos Santana’s music was incredible. Finding music that expressed my heart and mind and created joy within me was empowering….was life changing!

*The daughter came much later but she followed the Auburn path.*

Dixie Chicken by Little Feat came to mind strongly. It was a constant at Auburn with pre-football gatherings going into post-game cook-outs. Summers working at Gulf State Park during college years were enjoyed with The Eagles, Allman Brothers, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley. Every album I chose had strong emotional tattoos that will be with me throughout this life, coloring my soul.

SimoneLipscomb (5) — *David Wilcox…photo taken at COTA in Fairhope, AL*

Songwriters and musicians take their ideas about life and transform them into anthems for us. They weave words with rhythms, melodies and harmonies that become magic while we sing and dance along, creating our lives. Like the old slave tunes that created musical maps used to navigate escape, music gives us all a map of sorts to living joy-full, soul-full lives.

What does music mean to you? How has it influenced your life?

Where the Wild Things Are

By Simone Lipscomb | April 9, 2013

As I was photographing the musicians at Blue Moon Farm last weekend I realized that I was actually enjoying connecting with humans through photography. What? Surprised at the realization I contemplated it as I sat, transfixed by the jam happening ten feet from me.

I love music but the draw to photograph humans has never been very strong. Why was I photographing…humans? As I witnessed the outrageous creative process happening last Friday night and Sunday afternoon, understanding dawned.

Wildlife and wild places speak to me deeply, profoundly. So much so that I often ignore the beauty found in my own species…humans. My reason for avoiding photographing humans is that we are so domesticated…so disconnected from the spark of wildness that keeps us plugged in to the planet….to the cosmos and my work is really about capturing that spark of wildness, of raw, untamed beauty.

The musicians that play at The Frog Pond are masters at creating something harmonious, something beautiful out of thin air. My theory is they are still connected to that primal spark of pure, creative energy. They are still plugged into the untamed unlimited-potential cosmic soup in the creative cauldron of the Universe. They come together to tap into that source. And the result is explosively great music.

Wild animals are mostly free from domesticated parameters and boundaries. They live without thinking about living. Instinctually they exist on this beautiful planet, wild hearts free to be exactly who they were born to be. I cherish them for this.

Buddy and Lucky are residents at The Frog Pond — *Residents of The Frog Pond*

Animals that are around humans become domesticated and soon adapt our behaviors. Some wild traits may remain but for the most part, the wildness is bred out over time.

And just to be clear, I’m not suggesting we go back to caves and clubbing dinosaurs but rather simply remember our connection to the unlimited potential we are born with and not become seduced or conditioned into thinking we are less than what we are…or that we cannot fully express the gifts we were born to give the world.

The musicians that frequent The Frog Pond stage at Blue Moon Farm remind me that it is possible to tug the tails of stars that dwell in the cosmic soup and bring forth beauty simply by showing up, opening up and being willing to yank on the thread of pure creative energy that is available to all.

*Cathe Steele, owner of Blue Moon Farm and Music Mama of The Frog Pond*