An Essay Response

You might not be able to make me out in the picture, but I'm the one right between John Perkins and Jim Wallis. Yeah. Fun times. Anyway, after the Envision gathering ended, a group of Theologians stayed at Princeton to work through all of the dialogue and panels and make a declaration. I said Amen to it. It was actually a very diverse group of speakers and leaders. If you want to see it, here is the LINK. You sign it by posting a comment.

As I alluded to in the previous post, I did write an essay, a loose response on the panel about post-colonialism. I call it "Post-Colonialism and Songwriting." I'm actually starting to contribute to "The Other Journal," a publication of Mars Hill Graduate School. I'm considering submitting a better version of this, so you could help me out by giving me some feedback...mainly, did you reap anything from it at all? Thanks friends! Here's the essay:

It is good to be a songwriter. I just returned from Envision, a gathering at Princeton University where theologians, activists and leaders of all kinds gathered and dialogued with the goal of uniting the church and moving more deeply into the public square. Some of my own living heroes were in attendance like John Perkins, and some friends I have not been able to connect with in quite sometime like Shane Claiborne. There were also a slew of people who had influenced me greatly through their own journeys and books, people like Ruth Padilla DeBorst and Ron Sider. I, along with about 500 others, listened to them speak. We listened to panel discussions and response panels to speakers, and I got to share songs. I play a lot of house concerts...DOWNLOAD THE REST

Envision Reports

Hey all,  I just returned to Colorado after about a week in Princeton preparing for and participating in the gathering, "Envision 08."  I am in the midst of a deeper response to the panel on post-colonialism and will post it in the next couple of days, but here's a little video someone put together of the first afternoon.  More to come!

Real Blogging

Look at me doing real time blogging...

Today I packed up my car and dog and drove up to Boulder where I got a hair cut and checked out a cool new coffee shop on Pearl Street. I fixed some broken links in the online store and did some last minute correspondence, then went to my chiropractor, Dr. Zach, who I miss now that I live two hours south of Boulder. Then I had a great house concert with my friends Chris and Esther Cummings...super fun. Esther made chocolate covered strawberries, hummus, and spice cake among other yummy things. People from the neighborhood made up the majority of the group. I left Neve (my great dane) with the Cummings, and am crashing at my dad's house. Tomorrow morning I fly out of Denver and will spend the day getting to Princeton where I'll work with some other artist before the start of Envision!

Life is good...for those of you who knew I was having some health problems a month ago, I am doing really well. I did a yoga intensive/nutrition program post-tour, and learned a ton. Now I just have to figure out how to maintain everything while I travel. I did learn I have quite a few food allergies. Oh well...step by step...and I found really yummy gluten-free cookies at Whole Foods that I am packing on this trip.

Store Updated!

Good news friends! We have redesigned the store...or rather, we have received some incredible help from a friend. So, the store now utilizes a shopping cart, allowing you to combine multiple CD's, or digital AND physical in a single purchase. AND, you can use Google, Paypal, or credit cards to pay! I hope this makes it easier for everyone to purchase here (we do get a much larger percentage when you buy at restorationvillage.com) and please refer your friends!

Tracy Invited to Present at Envision 08!

As I mentioned before, I definitely want to unpack the fullness of the Spring tour a little bit more before plowing into the next thing, but this is really exciting. Envision is a gathering at Princeton of some amazing people, some I have met, some I have not. I met a woman named Lisa Harper at one of the last EMC gathering, hosted by the Latino Leadership Circle in the Bronx. Lisa heads up New York Faith and Justice and also is facilitating the creative teams at Envision. So, I was thrilled she invited me to be part and share some songs in the plenary sessions. If you're curious, check out the website. If you are a college student, you can apply to receive credit for attending! More to come...

The End of Tour

Well, we made it through. Actually, we not only made it, but we grew and saw hope. It was incredible. And as we parted ways after our last event together in Goshen, there was a bit of celebration, a bit of sadness, and lot’s of hugs. Of course I realize this doesn’t bookmark the end of some big event, but maybe it is an exhale. I (Tracy) practice Bikram yoga. It is a series of postures with rest in between each posture. Some of the postures are quite challenging and get the muscles twitching. However, exercise scientist have studied the body and found it is actually working the hardest and gaining the most benefit from the practice during the resting periods of the last two postures. In other words, if you don’t rest, you don’t get all of the benefits!

Brian, Linnea, Eric and I were talking about this over milkshakes in Goshen. We all want to reap the benefits, and hope others do as well. For those of you who caught one of the gatherings, do not forget to go to everythingmustchange.org and start adding content. For those of you who don’t know about the site, it won’t be officially launched until the fall, but it is just some of the fruit that has come from the relationships and connections during this tour.

There is rumor we might be doing a few Everything Must Change events in 2009…If you think your community might want to host, please contact Linnea Nilsen-Capshaw at info@deepshift.org. Thank you all who participated! I will be posting some deeper and much more detailed reports and thoughts on the tour, but wanted to at least start here. Brian posted some thoughts as well on his website, brianmclaren.net.

The Work of the People

This film was created by Travis Reed, a film and friend maker. Travis and I spoke by phone and found we have some very dear mutual friends in Brazil. This video was actually shot in Curitiba, Brazil. Dago Scheilin, a friend and fellow musician also did some of the video work and Claudio Oliver, who is speaking in the video, is also a friend and teacher. We are delighted we got to collaborate through Travis's work and friendship. The song in the video is "Come Out" from the new EP, Fill the Fields. Travis has used some other material from me in videos as well. You can check out all his work and resources at www.theworkofthepeople.com.