Calling all good wishes

In early 2017 I crossed the Richmond Bridge in California and changed my life. I had crossed that bridge many times before, but on that day, I chose to believe in myself. I have always been musical, singing along to Ella Fitzgerald and Joni Mitchell records as a teenager, playing guitar and singing in harmony with friends. I have written my whole life—journals, poetry, a screenplay, a novella, course readings— but I would get easily discouraged and rarely push myself to publish my work. On this day, as I drove to my first songwriting class,  I remember feeling butterflies, sensing this was what I was meant to do even though I knew almost nothing about it. I was 50 years old.

Every week I met with a group of other songwriters and we shared and critiqued each other’s work, learned about melody, harmony, lyrics and music theory, kept rewriting and most importantly, kept coming back. Recording this album in 2019 required me to put faith in myself and in the people who believed in me, to be both vulnerable and confident in ways I had never let myself be. It was a gift to work with extraordinary professional musicians to bring my songs to life. Pushing myself to follow my passion without knowing whether I was any good was daunting, and a risk worth taking.

If you have a story about a risk you took that changed your life for the better, I hope you’ll share it with me. And if you give your permission, I may share an excerpt on my website for others to read. Send me an email by clicking on “Contact” above.