Meditation | 007

Thank you for being here for the seventh installment of this newsletter.¹

🎵 This month’s song is in A major.² I was debating between two pieces, but this one felt like a more accurate reflection of what I want to convey at this moment, especially given the atrocities taking place in Ukraine.

📷 I snapped this month’s photo somewhere in Montana on one of many road trips across the US I’ve been fortunate to experience.³ I don’t even remember where exactly — but what I do recall is that I was free, and I was safe.

I invite you to sit with this song, photo, and poem and make them a small part of your day, whether that’s your morning ritual, afternoon break, or your evening wind-down.

As always, if you feel like it, let me know what you think in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you again for being here. Let’s take care of each other.

A Poem

Otherwise by Jane Kenyon (from Otherwise, 1997)

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

Currently

Admiring

• The artwork of one of my favorite artists, Hallie Rose Taylor, and eagerly awaiting the next thing she puts up for sale (Online shop)
  
  She also writes beautiful essays in her own newsletter that I highly recommend.

A few pieces from Hallie Rose Taylor, one of which is currently hanging in my studio.

• This:

MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 @MFA_Ukraine

In the bomb shelter, a girl plays a Ukrainian song composed by Mykola Lysenko “Nich yaka misiachna / What a moonlit night”

Reading

• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (Powell’s)

• Beautiful essays from fellow Substacker Tara (Devotions)

• The work of my new friend Stygi in Poland who recently shared a collection of helpful resources, compiled by others, for those looking to support the Ukrainian people, along with music from Ukrainian artists (Midweek Crisis)

Listening to

• Broken Harvest by Madison Cunningham (Spotify / Apple)

  • Reminder: I’m putting all the songs shared in the newsletter into this Spotify playlist

• The Shuffle Sundays newsletter from Leo Mascaro, which has helped me discover tons of great new music (Shuffle Sundays)

• The soundtrack from the latest film adaptation of Cyrano, written by members of The National (Aaron and Bryce Dessner), with lyrics by Matt Berninger and his wife Carin Besser. The whole soundtrack is beautiful — you can really hear the distinct flavor of The National in every tune, and the great Peter Dinklage does an amazing job channeling Berninger in his singing (Pitchfork)

You can now read and listen to Fog Chaser in the new Substack app for iPhone.

With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for any and all Substack publications you subscribe to. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.

1. If you’re wondering whether or not there is any rationale to the order of these posts, I promise you there is. I’m making my way around “the circle of fifths” in music, which basically places the most closely related key signatures next to one another in a visual format.

It just provides a logical order for me to move in, so that’s what I’m doing — following the well-traveled path of musicians before me who have written pieces in all 24 musical keys. For more, check out my About page.

2. Unmoored in A major / Recorded in Logic Pro / Written and recorded by Fog Chaser

3. Shot on iPhone6s, by a quiet lake somewhere in Montana