Winter has come, long and slow to Long Island finally. This week we had a strange peak of 65 degrees for two days, rainy and hot… It made the recovery from a nasty stomach flu just a little more difficult!

I hope you are all well — this is that hard time of the year between holidays, before the days get longer, when the earth seems to be moving just a little too slowly, and toes and noses freeze at night under the covers.

I will be very grateful this week to sit in a warm, heated room with a cup of hot chocolate and a hot plate of food after only having chicken soup for a week!

But it has given me a lot of time to reflect on the way things are in the world right now — the floods and the mudslide — the people in the Sudan who so hope for peace, and for the peace process in the middle east — the elections so forced and dangerous.

I have a lot to be grateful for this 2005, a wonderful family, and so many friends around the country, and support from so many with all of my projects. And I must be grateful for all of the wonderful music of 2004, with Jeshua on his new CD http://www.jeshuaerickson.com, and with Micah on Live in Vermont and with Stolen Shack http://www.onesoulrecords.com — and my work on this new project, which might involve my old friend Wissam Murad in Palestine, and already involves the incredible percussion work of Jamey Haddad — who recorded with me out of total kindness…

I have a wonderful girlfriend as well, Kathi, who has lots of our pictures posted at her blog, katharinaschuhmann.b logspot.com — and we have had lots of time to spend with one another this year — she has been getting her master’s at Stony Brook where I am getting my doctorate…

It is a beautiful world, with so many wonderful things happening for all of us, and so much beautiful music, art, writing — and I am blessed.

Have a wonderful day.

Take Care