Where I live in Northern California the summers are weeks to months on end of 100+ F and swimming is our daily relief! We joke that in our city you choose your friends here based on whether they have a pool or not! One such summer afternoon we headed to swim in our friend’s pool and my 4 year old son Thomas was eager to get wet, so when we arrived he jumped right in. As I came close …

A few weeks ago, I played in an instrumental sundown meditational concert created by pianist Ty Rex. Tyler asked me to share my compositions, melodies, a song – whatever I wanted! It was a stunning experience to play live and so close to an audience in the intimate space. As I was sharing my melodies and talking with the audience, a distinct memory came to mind. I was 13 years old and taking a music …

My husband wanted to race cars in Las Vegas for his birthday. It’s not really my deal and I planned to get some admin work done on the trip. As I was packing my bag, he questioned me, “Are you bringing that?” The ‘that’ he was referring to was my laptop. Why, yes! Yes, I was and (by the way) I couldn’t do without it. “Well, it would be nice if you weren’t distracted and on it all the time so we could have fun for two …

A few years ago my husband asked our friend Jessica Ostrander to create a painting of a sailboat in the calm before it encounters a storm. Jessica showed us the art techniques she used to flick paint and add water droplets onto her painting, adding layers of color and texture to contrast the calm and the storm. It hangs in our loungeroom and I still smile when I look at it. This painting inspired the creation …

A few weeks ago I had a dream that I had baked sourdough bread and was trying to deliver the loaf to a couple I know. On the way, I had to stop in at a friend’s house. My friend was with another family in the backyard and I couldn’t get their attention because they were riding down waterslides. Water was spraying on me, people were happily yelling and everything was a blurry fast pace. After the dream …

Point Arena is a tiny seaside town on the west coast of California. It has the cutest bakery which is worth seeking out and an odd assortment of other curious stores, as well as a safari preserve where my kids got more than they bargained for looking eye to eye with a giraffe who wanted a kiss! When our family visits, we always end up at the cove by the end of Moat Creek. Both my husband and eldest …

When I moved to Northern California in 2009, I was happily surprised to find a tiny, upstairs violin shop owned by violin maker John Harrison. He would do violin adjustments and bow re-hairs and show my kids what he was doing. They found this fascinating, mostly because of the promised cookie he gave them at the end. After a few years I discovered John had made a violin that was not on display, but rather …

Writing songs has been a way I have found to process what has happened to me or express what is currently happening in my life - like a musical form of journal writing. The experience which led me to write ‘Essence of my Love’ happened in a regular Sunday evening worship service I attended at my church. It was during a spontaneous moment where the band …

Have you ever experienced something so profound you weren’t quite sure what to do with it? ‘This, Your Song’, the song my album was named after, was born out of a vivid experience I had in a worship service. I saw myself emerging from a forest to the edge of a high cliff with magnificent views of villages dotted throughout the valleys and lush mountains. I was running and dancing along the edge of the cliff …

A few years ago, I was playing violin in an early morning worship set with Skyler and Kim Walker-Smith. I loved playing with them and was feeling so thankful to do so. Afterwards, I drove directly to a dress rehearsal conducting a 1st-4th grade kid’s choir at my children’s school. As I stepped up the path to enter the building, I heard God’s clear and distinct voice say …

“Mum, you have deep rivers on your face.” She pulls me close as I come to say goodnight and her blue eyes inspect. “Where?” And with that, her stubby four year old pointer traces the lines either side of my nose down to the corners of my mouth. She tracks her finger intently with her mouth-open gaze. It’s true. These ‘rivers’ have tasted the tears of difficult times, but also tears shed with hilarity. They’ve felt the arid …