The Kitchen: Works In Progress

On Saturday night, I played a house concert in a new space called "The Kitchen".

It's a personal and unique performance environment created by the highly accomplished singer-songwriter Rosalee Peppard. She and her husband Allan have built a personal concert hall as an addition on their home. By doing this, she has created an ideal space for her own performances and opened up an opportunity to showcase other artists.

The Kitchen is all about self-sufficiency and do-it-yourself spirit. It reflects Rosalee's willingness to forge her own path in music...and her ability to see that much of what she needs can be found in her own backyard.

The addition is just freshly built and many of the finishing details are yet to be completed. But the most important things are up and running: a small and elegant stage just right for one or two people, stage lighting that's flattering and not blinding, room enough for a sizeable audience and excellent acoustics. A voice and guitar sound completely at home here and can be heard without amplification right to the back of the room.

Over time, finishing touches will be added. Walls will be painted...flooring will be laid. The Kitchen will acquire "seasoning" over the many seasons ahead.

As my hosts tell me, proudly and cheerfully, "It's a work in progress".

The concert went well, with just the right number of people in attendance (I'm always amazed that this seems to work out almost magically). I abandoned my set list after three songs, allowing myself to respond to inspiration and the energy of the audience. I sang many songs well...made some mistakes too...encountered new challenges and discovered that they, too, could be overcome with self-acceptance and laughter.

Every performance is a work-in-progress.

As I look at my life, I see other works-in-progress too: my music, my writing, my career path, my marriage, my family...this blog/book ("blook?"). Try as I always do, I'll never get them all exactly right. There's always something important that's unfinished or imperfect or not executed according to whatever master plan I thought I had.

So, do I keep the doors closed until I get everything finished? Or do I welcome people in to the "work-in-progress" and open myself up to the unexpected miracles it may hold?

Like my friends at The Kitchen, I'm more and more inclined to fling open the doors and to know that if the most important things are in place--truth, love, light--the details (the ones God is in) will be taken care of in good time. So, bring on the "mistakes", the unanswered questions, the meandering life paths...when we share them, we help eah other make sense of them.

When I write songs, I know (after years of learning) that in order to finish something, I have to give all of my enthusiasm to the unfinishedness: the beginnings and middles, fragments, unresolved rhymes. I need to maintain faith that the creative process is always at work, even though I cannot yet see the outcome.

Thanks to Rosalee and Allan at The Kitchen for inviting me into the work-in-progress.