The Beginning of our Summer Music Experience

Kim and I have a music filled summer ahead of us and I thought I would share some of our experiences with all of you. We started our summer of music by attending a concert in Shiprock, New Mexico on Monday, May 21 that featured the Indigo Girls. Oh my, holy Hannah! What an amazing experience! Those of you that know my wife know she loves the Indigo Girls but until you see them live it is hard to really explain why she has so much passion and commitment to them. They were absolutely amazing and mind blowing. If you ever get the chance to see them in concert, you have to take the chance. I still can’t get over how amazing it was.

A Hopi reggae band called Casper opened the show. This group had an amazing amount of energy and really surprised me. When I heard that a “Hopi reggae band” was opening for the Indigo Girls I was a little skeptical, but they certainly won me over by the time they were done playing their set. They were fun to listen to and had a great message in their lyrics. Probably one of the most enjoyable elements of their performance was to watch Amy and Emily of the Indigo girls jamming to Casper’s music while back stage. From our vantage point we could see just off stage right and those ladies appreciated the performance just as much as we did. It was a lot of fun.

Now, I am going to take a moment to get a little preachy on you. Many of you might be wondering why the Indigo Girls would conduct a concert in Shiprock, New Mexico. Initially we also wondered. It turned out they were doing it to support a grass roots cause associated with a valid environmental cause. The concert, was sponsored by a group called “Honor the Earth”, and was a benefit concert designed to lend support to grassroots Native groups working to stop the Desert Rock coal plant. The grass roots effort desires that the Navajo Nation and other native cultures explore a safe energy economy, one based on the renewable energy potential of Native lands.

I feel this is a valid concern, an appropriate idea, and a cause worth supporting. It is time we take the initiative and explore better ways to exist in this world without causing it harm. Some of you may not think this idea aligns with my core values as a Mormon, but I would suggest otherwise. I firmly believe the Lord expects me to take care of this earth and treat it with respect. He doesn’t expect me to squander my inheritance by mistreating what I have been given or leave messes for future generations to deal with and clean up. A favorite saying of mine is one as if the Lord spoke it himself: He says, “Okay, now you’ve got the multiply part down. How about you work on the replenish.” Many will recognize this from the command to “multiply and replenish the earth.” Well, I think it is time we obey that command and do what we can to conserve and renew the earth. Just take a moment to think about it and do small things to make a difference that is all I am saying.

Okay, I am done preaching. Now back to the music. The Indigo Girls took the stage by singing “Pendulum Swinger” a new song of their latest album. It is a great song, and so much more amazing when you see it performed live. Those two ladies have so much passion and emotion wrapped into their music. It was incredible to watch them. They are so gifted and so talented. They really blew my mind! They switched guitars after every song and even switched in the middle of a song and didn’t miss a beat. They finished by playing the most amazing rendition of “Chicken Man” I have ever seen or heard. It was time well spent and great to be there with my wife and her sister. Thanks for dragging me there Kim it was a wonderful experience!

As I noted in the opening paragraph we have a summer of music ahead of us. I will try to post about each experience as we have them, so look for more. Just to give you an idea of what lies ahead for us. We are going to Indiefest in Pagosa Springs on June 9 & 10, and then we will watch the Indigo Girls again in Salt Lake City at Red Butte Gardens on June 19. Finally, we will likely wrap up our summer by attending the Folks Festival at Lyons, Colorado on August 19 in order to see Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus of Dreams. We haven’t committed to that one yet but right now we are talking about going. It should be a great music filled summer. I will let you know how it goes.

Happy Mother's Day!

A few years ago I wrote this little list for Kim on Valentine’s Day. I wanted to do something to honor her for Mother’s Day so I decided to share this with everyone, (after a little minor editing). I hope she doesn’t mind.

Remember When:

• A skinny eleven-year-old boy brought you a mouse.
  
• A neighbor girl who was twice his size forced a geeky 12-year-old kid into dating servitude.
  
• A dorky 13 year old fearfully broke the “chains of love” by dumping his neighbor girlfriend and began professing allegiance to you.
  
• A scrawny 14 year old began to stalk you.
  
• A dinky 15 year old suddenly grew taller than you.
  
• A bedazzled 16-year-old boy kissed you for the first time on the night of junior prom.
  
• A whipped young 16 year old blew an engine in his car while driving you to see your boyfriend in Monticello.
  
• A depressed 17 year old continued to stalk you.
  
• Somewhere in there you and your stalker became best friends.
  
• A nervous, soon to be 19-year-old boy looked you in the eyes across the dinner table and could have proposed marriage.
  
• A young missionary wrote you more often than he wrote his own mother.
  
• A young returned missionary asked you a set of questions during a late night cuddle session, which prompted him to get on his knees and ask you to marry him.
  
• You said, “YES!”
  
• A newly engaged couple financed a wedding ring with no money, no job and not even a roof over their heads.
  
• You knelt at the altar in the Temple of The Lord and stared into eternity with your stalker, to be sealed together forever.
  
• You forced the entire Hurst Family Convoy to pull over and stop on it’s way to Juarez, Mexico, while you emptied the contents of your stomach on the side of the road.
  
• Our first child tried to enter this world early then refused to come on time once the proper moment arrived.
  
• Our eldest daughter stopped breathing during her first hours at home.
  
• We lost track of one another because paying bills seemed to be more important than being together as a family.
  
• We made the crazy decision to move home within the year and we uprooted our lives within two weeks time. (The right opportunity came along.)
  
• Two young parents decided it was time to expand their family only to discover that having another child was not like buying a loaf of bread at the grocery store.
  
• Your husband had to learn how to poke you with a needle in a vain attempt to jumpstart your reproductive system.
  
• We shared a horrific and very tragic ultrasound with our young daughter.
  
• A young couple was told their reproductive luck had run out.
  
• A zealous young mother networked with everyone and their dogs in a frantic effort to add to her family.
  
• Two kids left their child at home while they hopped on a plane to San Diego to meet a potential birth mother.
  
• Weeks later they loaded their luggage and child into the car and waited hours at the train station to travel east by train in order to pick up the next member of their family.
  
• The highway patrol tracked that family down and asked them to call their adoption agency in order to receive some tragic news.
  
• Your fragile husband nearly fell apart and came very close to an internal death.
  
• Shortly thereafter we received the right phone call telling us it was time to come to Philadelphia to pick up our daughter.
  
• That young and tested couple met their second child in the lobby of a Philadelphia motel.
  
• Those youngsters didn’t wait around to let anyone change their circumstances and hopped on a plane to get home as quickly as possible with their little baby.
  
• We took our two daughters to the newly built Temple of the Lord in our home area and knelt once again at the altar and were reminded of the eternal nature of life.
  
• We realized we weren’t done, that there was another child who was to bear Dad’s name.
  
• We revealed our souls one more time on paper and when our paperwork was “almost done.”
  
• A national tragedy occurred and days later a Glover celebration happened.
  
• Two crazy San Juan County residents drove across the nation in two days to pick up their son, because there were no planes in the skies.
  
• We first met our little “cow,” and his precious birth mother.
  
• Our son was ripped from our arms and returned to live in tragic circumstances.
  
• We stopped living for 3 months.
  
• A depressed, lost, and forlorn couple was approached by their social worker and asked if they would accept a new scenario for the acceptance of a child in their home. That surprising scenario involved the return of their son.
  
• We returned once again to the altar of eternity and finished our family.
  
• A not so young husband paused what he was doing and saying to look his wife in the eyes and tell her how beautiful she was.
  
• The last time was that I told you, “I love you!” Well I meant it. I love you!
  

Happy Mother’s Day! I love you Kim and I want the world to know it! Thanks for being the mother of my children, my best friend and wife.