I’d like to tell you a story post by post. The story is about RiverFlow. Several years ago when my partner, Stanley was still alive, the story of RiverFlow began. Stan was then in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease. Once a creative dynamo, he became a prisoner of his body. I believe that because of that wrenching and debilitating difficulty, a life-enhancing response came to us out of the blue. The first of the RiverFlow graces then was understanding that an accepted need could become a formidable catalyst.
Phrases Posted on Facebook, October 2018
As it happened, one day, friends gifted us by coming by with guitars to play and sing for us. Stan, in his so called heavenly chair where he sat a good part of every day, simply glowed with pleasure. He loved show tunes and music of every kind. Feeling his intense pleasure our friends told us they’d come again. In that moment I learned again how appreciation is a mighty magnet.
Our friends came every other week to play for Stanley. I didn’t know it then, but it was the early beginning of a river’s flow. When enthusiasm and creative support are in the air, all kinds of things can happen. It was contagious! Bitten by the bug I couldn’t help myself, so I wrote the lyrics for a song I call Come Into The Circle. You can now hear it on this website when you access Warmed: Songs of Heart and Spirit.
Some months later, Stanley, passed away. Songs and singing came to an end. Our home went on the market. It seemed to me that the river stopped flowing. I was wrong about that.
Some years later it seemed a shame to me that so many of the lyrics I had written were without music. Could my friends who had sung for Stan compose music for my lyrics? Then I met Frank Pendola and his lovely wife. Could Frank, a singer and songwriter, put music to more of my orphaned lyrics? You know the answer. It was yes. With the help of these talented friends the river began to flow again.
An intention to create a body of songs grew. The focus deepened and the lyrics were fleshed out with music. My words came alive. When something is alive it has to move, to go somewhere. And mysteriously the universe steps in to help and further.
Together, Barbara Harvey, Natalie Billing, Frank Pendola and yours truly understood that our songs weren’t just for our own pleasure. We decided to make a CD to benefit something we could all support. That was the Warm Center, a homeless shelter in Westerly, RI.
Then came the gift of Andrew Cruz. Through a friend of Frank’s we learned of him, and he was right in our neighborhood! Tall, red beard, patched blue jeans and infinite patience he recorded, engineered, mixed, added, tweaked, listened and encouraged. Our songs came into their own. He gave us so much more time than he was paid for. Being in his studio with a rack of mikes, a vast recording console, strange shapes on the walls to make sound go deep and round was an adventure. It was wonder full.
Barbara Harvey’s watercolor became the CD cover composed by Pamela Zagarenski who designed the pamphlet with love and care. Gifts. Gifts. Gifts. I learn over and over again how warming it is when people join towards a worthy goal.
Programs to help the homeless and hungry are now needed more than ever in the way our country seems to be developing. Not far from where I live is the Warm Center. It is a place of hope, dignity and compassion. As a comprehensive social service agency it provides professional and compassionate wraparound programming for those in need in southern Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut. Day in and day out lunch and dinner are served for those who cannot provide for themselves. Every year nearly 2300 people will be
helped in myriad ways.
This is a huge story, but it doesn’t get headlines. It is quiet, un-dramatic, heroic
and down right beautiful. RiverFlow, the name we gave ourselves, has dedicated all its profits to help. Every CD that is sold will add to the work of this place. To be a part of “a community that takes care of its own” is a privilege. Please look at the website: www. The WARM center.com
Thank you, for having stayed with the RiverFlow story so far. As today is launch day on Facebook, please consider buying several copies of the CD, holiday love gifts to share with family and friends. The CDs are tax deductible and all the profits go to the WARM Center. Call Russ Partridge at 401-596-9276 or write The WARM Center at 56 Spruce St., Westerly, RI 02891. Make checks ($18.00 a piece) to the WARM Center and put CD contribution in the memo line.
Your gifts will keep on giving when you are part of a community taking care of its own. Let the river flow!!!
