Skies are grey, it's spitting rain. It's wonderful to see friends here in Holland. I am still working out the travel logistics to get to Italy next week.

Back in 2006 I attended a round table discussion about mental health issues in post Katrina New Orleans at an American Psychological Association conference held in New Orleans. The discussion was very interesting, and out of that has come a series of articles, including one by yours truly. Check them out.

Chloe and I arrived at Schiphol yesterday morning to be met by our lovely friend who is putting us up this week. It was snowing! Trains were affected, people were coming back from a 4 day weekend and the platforms were packed. It was an adventure!

Flying with a cat is an unusual experience. Chloe did very well. She did escape her box when we got on the plane in Dulles, but a flight attendant caught her right away. She slept mostly. I tranquilized her at first but then even after that wore off she slept. I took her to the bathroom on the plane every hour or so to takje her out of the box, hang out with her, giver her water. The travel to Italy by ground will be interesting!

And after all the shots and the microchip etc, Dutch Customs was, as usual, very nice and easy.

Proceeding with plans for continued travel and work, and happy to be here.

Music! I have always loved music, since I was a kid listening to my big brothers playing Bob Dylan and Jefferson Airplane and Traffic. Music has always mattered to me. I also love to share music that is special to me with others, so I have created Music for you! which you can see on the right hand side of this page. This is a collection of music files for download. I hope you enjoy my selections.

By the time I was a teenager I had been listening to Laura Nyro, and in 1974 I first heard Joni Mitchell. Laura died some years ago. I always thought we'd have liked each other. Now Joni is receiving accolades and honors for her genius, and it's all well deserved.

In 2007 Joni Mitchell released her first album in many years, Shine. It's beautiful, strong, and well worth listening to. Here is a teaser, one song, called This Place. The whole album is worth buying.

Herbie Hancock, another brilliant musician of our age, has recently released a set of recordings; interpretations of some of Joni Mitchell's work. It's called River - The Joni Mitchell Letters. Here is Tina Turner singing Edith and the Kingpin.

Music can move one in one's soul, open the heart, blow fresh air through the mind.

My friend Eric Koval with some partners has started an internet radio station, WBKM.org. He's playing great music for the people. Check it out. I hope to be sending in some recorded stories or interesting somethings to WBKM.org in the near future, tune in!

Yikes! We are snowed in just east of Cleveland in a motel. Level 3 emergency declared in the county so I am going to stay over for the day and the night and head out tomorrow.

I went out to get some food. It's great out there. You can't see the road at all, and it's snowing pretty hard, so everyone has to drive slowly and pay attention, there really is no choice. Something about more intense climate stuff brings out our common humanity.

These long drives offer me time to think, to be, to sing, to cry, to laugh. It's like review time. All of what I've been experiencing is somehow distilled into intense emotions. It's good. I feel connected with a lot of people all over the world. I feel the connections. I know they love me, and are thinking of me. I love them and am thinking of them, and they know it. I remember when I lived in Vermont I used to feel lonely, mostly for a partner. Now I feel ... well the opposite of lonely, I feel connected with so many partners. I sure do love getting older.

Talking with people when I buy gas, or food, or whatever, is always interesting. So far I have had some really great experiences. I don't even start the conversation about how challenging things are in the US these days. People must detect a sympathetic ear and it just comes out when they are with me. I just read how the FDA doesn't want to release the names of companies selling recalled tainted meat because it would be bad for business. I see that, and I think about the people I meet, and there is such a total disconnect. The FDA is just one example of how government is now blatantly against the people.

I was driving through South Dakota. I heard radio station KINI FM, out of St. Francis, a Native station. The gentleman was speaking slowly and deliberately. he said "Today we are going to talk about what is good for the people." He went on to discuss respect for elders, and then introduced two high school girls who each shared a little about how they grew up with their mothers, aunties, and grandmothers. They both talked about how they had been taught to be kind and generous and to respect elders, and how when they made a mistake their grandmother (usually) would sit down and explain to them what they did and why it was wrong and how to correct it. I was struck by the dignity and especially by the attention to kindness and caring and respect as important practices.