Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I wanted to share an enthralling new album I  just listened during my quiet hour this afternoon. Jeremy Dutcher, an experimental artist from Canada has created some deeply haunting and beautiful music in his new record ‘”Wolastoqiyik  Lintuwakonawa,” unlike any music I recall hearing.

In this award-winning album, Dutcher fuses traditional Wolastoquyik melodies with classical compositions and electronic music.

The music was inspired by Dutcher’s community, the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada.

Dutcher has talked about how music – like writing and art – is a tie to community, identity and language. There are fewer than 100 speakers of Wolostoqey, an Algonquian First Nation language, alive today.

The tribe elders are deeply moved by the success of this album, they believe the spirits of the tribe are bringing the old music back to life. But there is nothing old about Dutcher’s brilliant melding of the old and the new.

He is bringing this music, nearly lost,  back to life. The singers in the tribe were called “Two Spirits,” and travelers looked for Two Spirit singers wherever they went.

I first heard music from this album today on NPR’s Inside Edition, then downloaded it on Apple Music. I’m going to spend an hour with it late tonight, sitting by a fire during an expected winter storm.

So far, our holiday plans have turned out well. Our Christmas began with the Hafla, the performance-for-families   of her belly dancing group in Bennington Vt.

The belly dancing performance was a big deal for Maria, a kind of coming out. She is still working it out. I was very proud of her for doing that, more importantly, she was very proud of herself.

We did not exchange any gifts on Christmas, we did go over to the Mansion to read to the residents and sing. We’re doing that again on Friday.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with friends, I cooked two pizzas, one was overcooked, the other undercooked. But they tasted pretty good.

I gave Maria a picture book about sloths, which is about the best present you could give Maria. But I told her it wasn’t a Christmas present. Maria gave me a new pillow to replace the one Bud ate, but she said that wasn’t a Christmas present either.

Christmas afternoon, we went to see the new Will Farrell spoof, Holmes & Watson, we loved it. Then we had Japanese food.

Our Christmas was simple and quiet, we were mindful of the spirit of the day, rather than the bargains available online.

I hate to sound huffy and pompous, but we seem to be an aspiritual country right now, measure our lives and civic nature only by money and taxes and keeping the “others” away.

Still, life is what you make of it, and we thought about our holidays and they turned out well for us. Everybody has the right to shape their own Christmas, it has taken us a few years to figure out ours. We are getting there.

We are thinking about New Year’s Eve, Thomas Toscano has invited Maria and I to come over to WBTN around 8 for a New Year’s Eve bash with pizza.

Sounds right.

Dear Army Of Good, Happy New Year, and lots of thanks. I wanted to update you on my plans for supporting the refugees in 2019.

As most of you know, Ali and the soccer team have found another sponsor, and I imagine they will have a good a year in 2019 as they did in 2018. I hope so.

My refugee work continues. But I’ve learned a lot about how to do it efficiently and effectively. None of this would have happened without your support, I thank you.

As you know, I’m shifting focus and exploring ways to make our work more effective and focused. We were spending a lot of money, and doing a lot of good but I came to believe the best use of our resources is to focus on individual people – children, mostly – and seek to alter the course of their lives.

I was concerned that I was asking for too much money, and plugging small holes rather than lasting ones.

The first move was to help Sakler Moo, the gifted middle school student, pay his tuition at the prestigious Albany Academy. He is thriving there, and I am still collecting money for his 2019 tuition, due in September.

This really worked, thank you.

I’ve set up a special Sakler Moo Education fund, you can contribute by sending a donation to the fund via Paypal, [email protected], or by check to Jon Katz (Sakler Moo Fund), P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

I have taken on his families share of the scholarship – $2,000. This is not something they can do.

We have $3,000 in the fund, there are pledges for $2,000 more.

This has turned out to be a model for the work I’d like to do in the coming months, only I’m asking the schools to fully fund the costs. Sakler is especially gifted, we have changed the course of his life.

I am working with the Albany Academy and one other private school to help identify gifted refugee students in the public schools and get them full – not partial – scholarships. They are eager to diversify their student body.

The fund-raising is focused and bounded, it will change the lives of the young people who participate.

I’ve contacted several teachers in the Albany Public Schools, and they have chosen two young people who are standout academic  students, one, the young woman,  is from Burma.

We are seeking a scholarship for a female student. Next week, I’m meeting in Albany with Alex, a senior at the Albany Academy, he wants to join with me to raise $6,000, the school will fund the rest.

We’ll use my blog and if necessary, a gofundme page to raise the money. Alex will focus on the school community, I’ll reach beyond that with the Army Of Good. I’m excited about this approach, I hope it can grow.

The program is set up so that I won’t need to fund raise for this young women, her costs will be met in full.

It has taken a lot of behind the scenes work, which is why it has taken so long. I’ll get there.

The school administrators are totally supportive of the idea, which I  hope can be expanded to other schools. I asked RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support center if they wished to participate, they declined without explanation.

This was not a surprise, but I was sorry to hear it, they have some outstanding young women there.

So I’ll keep you posted. I will, of course, continue to support the work at the Mansion with the residents there. I will continue to ask for financial support for that work.

In the meantime, please consider supporting the RISSE Amazon Wish List. It helps the students in their after school program and their families. We know exactly where the money goes.

There is no better way to start my day than to support the work RISSE is doing.

A few months ago, in an effort to calm my almost always frantic min, I started a new ritual. I call it the  healing hour. Late in the afternoon, when I’ve worked on my blog and my book, and the chores are done, the bills paid, the animals and dogs fed, I lie down in a big soft chair in the living room.

I call this the Healing Hour, the quiet time, I am alone with just me. No phones, news, e-mails, distractions. The room is usually dark and warm, a fire cracking in the wood stove, the curtains drawn.

Once in a while I can sleep, but mostly I listen to music and close my eyes and meditate. In the past month, something new. Bud spends the afternoons with me, once he is done playing and running with Fate.

At some point during the  hour, he hops up onto my chest or stomach, finds a place to lie down, and puts his head on my shoulder, or my chest.

I stroke him softly, and he falls asleep, his snoring a meditation of its own. He seems to grasp the meaning of the hour, a very active dog, he is always still during this time, he opens his eyes once in a while to remind me to rub his forehead or neck, his sweet spots.

I find this calming, healing, meditative. He is a sweet and loving creature, anxious to please, and content with his new life. He seems to know this hour is important to me, like any good spirit dog, he wants to be a part of that.

He quietly enters this spiritual time, and is now a part of it, in the way that dogs can be.

Thomas Merton wrote that a spiritual life is first of all a life, it is not merely something to be known and studies, it is to be lived.

We get the dogs we need.