Deb Montgomery

I am babysitting tonight for friends. They have a 4 month old…..a little love of a boy. Tonight, his parents first outing, he cried for about an hour…as I moved from one thing to another to soothe him..finally the bottle, then some rockin (the quiet kind), and then some singing..the quiet kind and then some whispering while he sucked away on a finger for a bit…hands gripping my thumb and baby finger…and I watched as he fought sleep..and slowly drifted off…to the sound of cooing…(I did my best coo sounds)…and then the grip fell loose and mouth fell open..and his little body settled and he was out. For some reason it made me think about surrender and prayer and God..and weeping…and fussing and kicking and fretting…I had a week like that last week. A lot of Grief about something I could not change…and it seemed like it just kept coming…until it didn’t anymore. Our own grief is sometimes the whisper, the cooing, the act of surrendering…and then our grip loosens and our mouths fall open and something new comes..life is strange. Babies are amazing. There is so much grace.
Peace,
Deb

well…my last blog didn’t fair so well..

the point of “Sculpture and Haircuts”…that by taking away things, you often create something beautiful. An eight year old in a writing class I was helping with today…said that “haircuts” were one of the things that you got by taking away stuff. We had been editing her writing..I wrote this quite clearly before..now I’m rearranging my apartment and throwing things out..this will have to do!
peace piece by piece

Well, CD BABY gave a discription of “Ask for Angels” in these words:

“haunting and frolicking folk rock that makes you wonder if Neil Young has
a little sister.”

Here’s a true story that I actually wrote out for Neil when I sent him my CD recently.

When I was 13 years old, my best friend was Ann McCauly (spelling?). she was from somewhere in the states,..I think Alabama. We would hitchhike from my juniour high school in Toronto to her house for lunch and hitchhike back again. We would spend our lunch hours eating Oreo Cookies and air guitar-ing “Harvest”. I always hogged the lead guitar parts. I think we did this for weeks until some guy picked us up and yelled at us for hitch-hiking. But I fell in love with Neil’s music that year. Later in College, After the Gold Rush reminded me to stay alive in the midst of what was then a certain personal kind of hell. All this to say that I love this quote about being his little sister if he had one. Besides, I am the eldest of three so being someone’s little sister is just cool. Hm. Probably I am often my little sister’s little sister though…………….

rain peace,
Deb

When I was on Inesheer, I co-wrote a song with a songwriter from
Germany. Her name is Julia Noack…you can go to her site www.julianoack.com…
anyhow, our song was called “Things Break.” I think it’s a beauty.
The funny thing about songwriting is that sometimes I think that songs are
like dreams..revealing wishes and fears..playing out parts of our deepest places
and spaces. Sometimes forecasting things to come…a working ahead on some
issue or issues…Everytime I go through major change, I tend to feel like
I’m falling apart or breaking down. I’ve come to trust it more as time has gone along…
that in the falling there is transformation..that broken is not bad, that being scared
doesn’t mean scary things must happen, If you’re out there reading this Juls, I find
the music and lyrics of the song we wrote very comforting and even exhilerating….encouraging.
You should get your butt to this side of the Atlantic and we’ll record it!
ok…or mine back there.
peace lasses and lads..I miss Ireland.
Deb

I am back in my hood. Lovely to see familiar faces and catch up here and
there…to greet and be greeted with such genuine enthusiasm….great to miss
and great to be missed. At the same time, for those of you in Ireland and on
Inesheer………I left a little piece of my heart with you….thank you. I am sad
and full, longing and satisfied, missing and deeply grateful. I thank God for such
a time. I thank you for being there. If Russ the Ghost reads this, I have a couple
concepts for you. Get in touch!

Fish out of Water For Now,
Deb

Back from the Island of Inesheer.
Fabulous week with about 17 other songwriters..
Amazing place to spend a week as well.
Castles and Shipwrecks…Kind of like life.
Co-wrote two songs that I think are wonderful.
I miss all of you from the retreat very much..
I miss the Island as well. I do not miss the ferry
back though I’ve always wanted to be out at sea…what
a thrill and how scary! Beautiful!
Checked in on emails yesterday…will slowly get back
to you all! Give me a day or two
Ireland Rocked in every way. I am very thankful.
Peace,
Deb