I moved to Ada, Oklahoma almost three years ago. Since that time my life has been in a constant state of unpacking and attempting to shape something that looks like a new life here.
The energy it takes to uproot to a new location far surpassed any prediction I could have made.
But something pushed through my attempts to settle this week…and moved past my daily routine into the work I began with my Every Point on the Map (EPTOM) project.
Yesterday, I ruled out all my files that “weren’t” EPTOM work. Today, I began sorting through what was.

Somewhere in the midst of grappling with the back-to-back mass shootings I began listening to an audio file that was running while we were getting to know those who showed up to play together on March 15, 2016. I started listening and I didn’t stop until I got to our interview segments.
What I realized when I stopped the file was this: for thirty-eight minutes I felt peaceful. I smiled a few times; warmth encompassed me when really all I was listening to was a room full of people who had convened to play music.
For thirty-eight minutes I closed my eyes, reflected back to that night Rachel and I visited Cushing, and felt at peace.
This audio file is background…it was simply meant to be used to capture a minute or two of clips to put into a montage covering our visit.
Instead, I converted it to a file and am giving it to you. So you can know that tonight, in a world where national headlines shake our core, there are places where people walk up the steps of historical home, hug each other, bring food, and play and play and play until they are done.
In case you’d like to skip through to a few numbers that the group was playing, that starts about the 15:00 minute mark. Peace.
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