For the past few days, I have felt my body fighting off what might have been an immobilizing head-cold.  I have awakened with a sore throat in the mornings and stricken with lethargy in the evenings.  However, I am rarely ever sick and illness is  among those invisible entities which I am not at liberty to feed energy-to.  Instead, I am moved to point the focus of this entry to the topic of health.

I am an enthusiast of Folk Medicine, Homeopathy, and other holistic alternatives to the medicinal status-quo.  My experience and research has shown that it is human nature to be in complete health, and that most illness has its origin in a belief otherwise.  We have the power to invoke illness within our bodies just as we have the power to heal and maintain health.  I have often heard people say things like ‘Don’t get upset, you’ll make yourself sick’!  It would suggest that most of us are cognizant of this mind-body connection.  But why do we imagine that it only goes one way?  Yea, you are a much more powerful healer than you might know!

Dis-ease is often rooted in a problem of self-worth.  In fact, symptoms of this also appear outside of our-selves as ‘problems’ in our daily experience.  Many of us believe that we are much less than what we really are.  We have been taught that we are victims to the conditions of our life and that we are evil in nature.  Yet, our powerful nature is nonetheless at work!  These very beliefs are mirrored back to us as symptoms. When we attack the symptom (as modern medicine would have us do) we merely suppress the root issue, allowing it to compound and create greater problems in and outside of our-selves.  Instead, I prescribe this:  Know how magnificent you are!  Continually re-affirm your healthy nature! This knowing will affect your actions toward yourself and others.  You will then begin to experience the symptoms of health, joy, love, and abundance.

Be well,
Dr. Hazelwood

My peak season for composition is the Autumn.  In those few enchanted months, I have systematically been able to harvest an abundant yield of the year’s ideas and emotions with ease, rendering as much material as I have time for.  The year leading up to this past writing-season held for me more learning-experience than any since my childhood.  Naturally, I manifested more music than ever before.  Yea, but this prolificacy is a double-edged sword!  Perhaps it is a relatively favorable conundrum, but I find it a daunting task to stand before a congregation of my brain-children and select those which are nearest and dearest to my heart, to be presented to the world as proper representatives of my Good purpose.  But, it must be done in order to compile a cohesive collection of material, each song effectively charged to conduct a steady creative stream of the highest potentiality.

My writing style ranges from the allegorical to the affirmative.  In either case however, the Law of Mind is at work.  When one comes to fully realize that his every thought and word is the benefactor of his experience, he becomes very decisive about his language.  Art is the effect, but it is also the cause!  The images that we labor over and give passion to (whether positive or negative) will eventually become woven into the tapestry of our daily experience.  Therefore, the question becomes – “which of these songs hold an intention that I would have echoed back to me”? 

I once heard a radio interview from around 1940 of Blues-legend Blind Willie McTell.  The interviewer condescendingly asked him “can you sing us a complainin’ song Willie?  You know, a blues song – a complainin’ song”!  Willie completely averted this allusion and insisted that he didn’t know any songs like that, but only ‘songs of salvation’.  I was thoroughly impressed by this clear distinction of intention!  Clearly, we can place Mr. McTell among those luminaries who have been privy to The Secret.

Scheduling conflicts have forced our recording dates into the first week of April, so there is exactly one month left for preparation.  As a result of the aformentioned analysis I will soon have a final list of songs which are to be included in those sanctified sessions, and I have all but settled on a title.  I leave you in heart-felt gratitude for your participation and support.  Just the fact that you would take the time to consistently read this journal has been the elemental fuel for my fire!

With the utmost sincerity,
Mister H.

THIS WEEK has been a testament to the fact that the Universe certainly IS a mirror for ones intention.  Immediately upon committing to the forward motion of an album project (up until now I have had but a toe in the water for fear of pecuniary failure), I had the distinct feeling that I had impelled a great wave into motion that can only build and build before crashing onto distant shores, permeating land and sky, and eventually raining my Good back down upon me.  Miraculously, all of the doors and windows are opening around me and I have only to follow gentle breezes into wide-open spaces where it is possible that I may be rained-upon.  There are more developments, kind reader, than I would impose upon you for the moment.  But, allow me to expel some highlights.

This morning, I met at Crema – a downtown coffee-shop – with a gentleman named Mr. Jace Freeman, a videographer and photographer whose works I have been fervently impressed-by.  The meeting was to discuss plans for a music video for The Grey House, wherein Mr. Freeman detailed his vision articulately.  Very little conversation was necessary to know that we were of like mind, which strengthened my faith that the song would be well-served.  Moreover,  my gratitude for this man’s reciprocated interest in my art was intensified!  We formulated some basic ideas and made a tentative plan to begin filming in April.  I will keep you enlightened as to the details of this endeavor as they become known to me.

Another important announcement is a live performance by myself and the New Transcendentalists at The 5 Spot in East Nashville exactly one week from today – Thursday, March Fourth.  Also on the bill is Mr. James Wallace, for whom I will be performing the duties of antiquarian percussionist (James will also be a part of our ensemble), and The Orange Opera from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  The show is scheduled to begin at Nine O’clock.  We do hope you will join us and share in the excitement these influential days leading up to a snap-shot from their pinnacle.

Working tirelessly,
Mr. J.S. H.

[Saturday]

After several long months of meticulous calculation, rigorous experimentation, and implementation of the resulting scientific philosophies; I was able to uncover the quantum equivalent of the feeling of spring.  I placed this elusive feeling into an advanced particle accelerator (the human heart) and alas, spring is manifest!  Just as in my hypothesis – warmth, hope, and good cheer are ubiquitous and abound!  My colleagues are sure to be shocked and awed by this revolutionary feat of science, which should guarantee me a place among the luminaries!  Assuredly, my name shall be listed in scholastic texts and journals of metaphysics forevermore – as the ‘Benefactor of Spring’.

[Sunday]

As it turns out, my findings were inconclusive.  Upon boasting to my fellow scientists, each insisted that he himself was the Creator, and had likewise been applying his consciousness to the upheaval of the winter.  This is most troubling.  Can they not see that I am the One – have they no perspective?!  And as if it were not trifling enough, these men are so bold as to go about enjoying the fruits of my labors!  Yea, I have seen each of them taking long leisurely strolls out-of-doors, and musing on park-benches with a pretentious air of magnanimity.  It is much to my dismay that I myself cannot bask in this light of victory.  I must immure myself within the stone walls of my laboratory until such time as I can prove irrefutably that I have discovered the Key to the Seasons.  If my calculations are correct, I will have done so by the epoch of November. 

 Mr. J.S. Hazelwood

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
in one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?–

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1820

Since I was a child I’ve had an inescapable propensity to trace everything to its origin. Whether it was ideas, problems, words, or reality itself; I had a gnawing suspicion that nothing is about what it seems to be about, that there is an underlying cause to everything.  I absolutely cannot eat my break-fast without thinking of the farmer who gathered the eggs and the chicken who bore them, the delivery driver who carried them to market and the store clerk who stocked the shelves with them.  On a day when I am particularly busy-minded, I’ll be thinking about the egg itself and the miracle that it is.  Ah, the incredible edible egg…  I cannot write a word without attempting to deconstruct its meaning as I did earlier with the word ‘break-fast’.  Moreover, I cannot listen to any music without tracing it to the root from whence it was derived.

All modern music has roots which can be traced back to the early twentieth century.  This is because it was the epoch of audio recording technology.  Any music before that was passed along in live performance or written score.  When the record album was born, we were able to listen repeatedly to a selection and perhaps even play our instrument right along with it.  It is a strange phenomenon to hear the exact same performance more than once!  When we physically re-perform a song, it is apt to come off a little different each time.  Therefore, various subtle aspects of a performance, which were never intended to be highlighted, began to stand-out in repeated listening.  As time passed, the succeeding musicians had a tendency to exaggerate these nuances in attempt to repeat the effect of some ‘ideal performance’ that was impressed into their minds by hours and hours of repeated listening.  The next generation would then interpret what they were hearing out of context, having no knowledge of the intentions of the original artist.  I liken it to the process of recording music from one cassette tape to another.  Each time you copy the tape, its quality is degraded.  In repeating this transference, you will eventually be unable to discern what the songster was trying to convey.  Therefore, it is this thinker’s good opinion that since about the 1920’s the heart and soul has been linearly dubbed-out of modern music. 

But wait!  Please do not take me out of context.  I do not suggest that everyone should go around listening to The Mississippi Sheiks (although I cannot help but think everyone could benefit from it in some way).  But rather, I say make music that is not reactionary!  Let the vicissitudes of life flow through your heart and mind – filling up every chamber of your being and overflowing into your art!  This is what those original recording-artists were doing!!  And, there have in my opinion been a number of music artists in the past one-hundred years who have also done this; but they are relatively few.  Yet, this doesn’t mean that it is hard to do!  In fact it is an essential part of our very nature, which we often struggle in defiance of.  Neither do I believe this only applies to music.  Nay, it is applicable to every course in life!  There is a race-mind of thought that wants to homogenize every worthwhile pursuit.  But in truth, there are as many ways to do a thing as there are people to do it!  I say that when what you experience differs from what you have been told – trust the experience.  Go down deep within your-self and excavate the Truth which has been lingering there throughout the Millennia.  This is the only Truth which shall set you free.

Mister J.S. Hazelwood

It is another fine Sunday of solitude here at the Hazelwood Estate.  All of the help has gone home to be with their families in observance of the Sabbath.  As a result, the house is quieted and I am at liberty to engage in my own rituals.  One long-standing Sunday custom of mine is a morning reading from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays.  If you find that I reference Emerson more than other luminaries it is because I rank him with the Jesus’ and Buddhas of the world.  Moreover, I consider his collection of essays to be every bit as high a source of truth as The Holy Bible itself.  In seeking, I have found great reward in the pages of the Good Book, but I have also found that there are other ‘Good Books’.  The Bhagavad-Gita is a Good Book, as is the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Rumi’s Poetry, Aristotle’s Treatises, and The Cat in the Hat.  A seeker of any origin can travel any number of roads to the same Universal Truth.  There are no doubt as many paths as there are seekers. Emerson just happens to be the soil of my path – one that is carved into infinity.  He had a great understanding that the artful delivery of Truth is as important as the Truth itself.  For, the interpretation from one to another is always subject to perception.  The Bible may cause one to love his neighbor while the other may use it to provoke a war in the name of God.  Emerson taught Self Reliance – that personal intuition is the highest source of Truth – higher than any text or doctrine.  When you have heard the quiet voice of your intuition (the voice of God) there is no denying it – no misinterpretation.  With this in mind, I believe a meditation is in order…

God Bless,
Mister H

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Sincerely,
The New Transcendentalists

Why Hello,

I have just sat through the most energizing morning shower – an out-pouring of the essential stuff of life. The multitude of droplets upon the gables of this old manor created a powerful and sustained roar throughout its shadowed halls. From my writing desk I can see through a nearby pane that the rain has quit at last. Now, a calm of the same magnitude has settled in as to not be ignored. This proverbial ‘calm after the storm’, seems to me an ‘Amen’ or as we say in Religious Science ‘and so it is’, affirming that the world has been made new for us to go about this business of creating and re-creating ourselves.

“More servants wait on man
Than he’ll take notice of”

During the deluge, I sat in a moment of reverence at my newly-acquired pump organ. It is an Estey, built in Brattleboro, Vermont around 1892; among the finest of these instruments ever built. It is something which I have been seeking (and which, no doubt, has been seeking me) for many years. Because of their age it is rare to find one in tune and in good working order. This one is completely intact, in standard tuning and in tune with itself! To sit on its stool, pump the bellows with my feet, and play music on this magnificent contraption without the aid of electricity is thrilling to my sensibilities, not to mention that it is a lovely piece of antique furniture. But, to quote Shakespeare…”The play is the thing”. This instrument has a sound like the breath of the Gods! Already having recorded it as accompaniment on one of my compositions, it adds a texture which far surpassed my every expectation. It is a sound which has scarcely been heard by human ears in over a century.

At length, the ensuing calm has pervaded the interior of my home as well as the interior of my self. I can now go about the business of making music. Perhaps I will begin my day’s work on this beloved new instrument…

Full of hot air,
Mr. H

Dear Confidential Friend,

I know not how or to what end you have come to be reading my words, but it is among my philosophies that there is no coincidence. In submitting each entry, I have had a grand knowing that it would find its own way to those receptive souls who revel in this brand of non-sensory (nonsense-ory) perception, or as Poe once criticized “obscurity for obscurity’s sake and mysticism for mysticism’s sake”. I have collected data that would suggest that growing numbers of curious persons on every corner of the globe are regularly indulging in this periodical, and to me it is a thrilling prospect! It has confirmed my suspicions that I am a man uncommonly witty and wise. I extend my sincerest appreciation to my loyal readers and my warmest welcome to all of you who are just arriving. May you never take me (or life) seriously!

With Gratitude,
Mr. J.S. Hazelwood