I started writing this song in 2009 when I first picked up the pen again. I had gone to the Grand Canyon years earlier and the wind and scenery were amazing! It was a religious experience! The wind shook things loose and I realized that I was holding onto guilt for no reason. This song took over 10 years to finish or should I say, it took 10 years for the song to be finished with me. It is the song that allowed me to forgive myself, to stop feeling guilty about everything, to stop feeling not good enough, to unlocking my voice with Beth Nielsen Chapman, back to Arizona with my Crystal Singing Bowl teacher Ashana. Until you forgive yourself, you can never truly be free.

I placed this song here on the album because I feel we all need to free ourselves from the trauma of the pandemic and I feel this song epitomizes the cathartic moments that one experiences in life to gain freedom. For me it was the Grand Canyon.

This is another song that I recorded in 2019 in Nashville live off the floor with the band and I didn’t quite know where it would fit but that it was important to record. I feel it was meant for this place in the album. When you find the hope, you must then move forward with forgiveness and healing and in my case, I need to forgive myself and let go of the sense of responsibility that I had taken on myself that was never asked of me and free myself from being stuck. and when I wake on those days, “Amazing Grace” is in my head. This is the first recording with my Crystal Singing Bowls. For this song, I am simply playing one bowl, my heart bowl.

I still feel stuck sometimes, but I know that I have come a long way in the journey. How about you?