Bliss and Drumming: The Slow Enlightenment of the Hard Rock Drummer

CLEMENTINE MOSS "CLEM & CLEARLIGHT" Produced by Clementine Moss and Robert Preston Recorded and Mixed by Robert Preston, GetReel Productions, San Francisco Mastered by JJ Golden, Golden Mastering Copyright 2024 Clementine Published by C. Kingdom Publishing Artwork: Jon Weiss Photography: Gretchen Menn Art Layout: Max Crace *** Hey Sweetheart (Clementine/Gottardo/Marks) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Robert Preston: Bass Jimi Marks: Keyboard Bar Broad Blues (Clementine/Gottardo/Marks) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Jimi Marks: Keyboard Robert Preston: Bass Coming to Meet the Blues (Clementine/Gottardo/Marks) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Jimi Marks: Keyboard Robert Preston: Bass LT Blues (Clementine/Gottardo) Clementine: Vocal/Drums/Synths Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Robert Preston: Bass Restless Night (Clementine/Gottardo) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Robert Preston: Bass Bill Cameron: Keyboard I Love You Every Day (Clementine/Gottardo) Clementine: Vocal/Drums/Synths Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Robert Preston: Bass/Backing Vocal Voice of Drum (Clementine/Gottardo/Marks) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Jimi Marks: Keyboard Robert Preston: Bass Comes On Anyway (Clementine/Gottardo/Marks) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Jimi Marks: Keyboard Robert Preston: Bass No Way We're Going Home (Clementine/Gottardo/Marks) Clementine: Vocal/Drums Daniele Gottardo: Guitar Jimi Marks: Keyboard Robert Preston: Bass/Backing Vocal

Soft tabla beats, dreamy piano, and whispered vocals ask: “Will you light my passage through the alleyways of your heart?” “Fragrant Gardens,” from Nothing Will Keep Us Apart, meditates on love's eternal connection amidst a world of broken promises. A gentle reminder of the divine within romantic love, it's ideal for playlists like Introspective Acoustic or Meditative Moments. Fragrant Gardens Written by Clementine Moss/Robert Preston/William Cameron Clementine: Vocals, Tabla, Synths Robert Preston: Bass William Cameron: Keys Clementine Moss Nothing Will Keep Us Apart Producers: Clementine Moss and Robert Preston Engineer: Robert Preston, GetReel Productions Publishing: C. Kingdom Publishing 2024

Dive into the liminal space between waking and dreaming with “Dream Yoga.” Snappy snares, electric piano, and organ grooves transport you to the “dreaming sea,” a space for reflection and release. From Nothing Will Keep Us Apart, this track invites listeners to journey into the subconscious. Perfect for Chill Vibes or Dreamy Indie Pop playlists. Dream Yoga Written by Clementine Moss/Robert Preston/William Cameron Clementine: Vocals, Drums, Synths Robert Preston: Bass William Cameron: Keys Clementine Moss Nothing Will Keep Us Apart Producers: Clementine Moss and Robert Preston Engineer: Robert Preston, GetReel Productions Mastering: JJ Golden, Golden Mastering Publishing: C. Kingdom Publishing 2024

With echoes of Tom Waits and tango clubs, “Dear Humans” blends heavy toms, swaying piano, and a vibrant chorus to ask: how do we let go of history and fully love? A heartfelt plea to humanity, this track from Nothing Will Keep Us Apart reflects on how love for others mirrors our divine connection. A poetic anthem for playlists like Indie Perspectives or Poetic Pop. Dear Humans Written by Clementine Moss/Robert Preston/William Cameron Clementine: Vocals, Drums, Synths Robert Preston: Bass William Cameron: Keys Jacob Vosmaer: Synths Clementine Moss Nothing Will Keep Us Apart Producers: Clementine Moss and Robert Preston Engineer: Robert Preston, GetReel Productions Mastering: JJ Golden, Golden Mastering Publishing: C. Kingdom Publishing 2024 https://www.clemthegreat.com https://www.facebook.com/ClementineMossMusic/ https://www.instagram.com/clementinemossmusic/

Motown grooves meet heartfelt reconciliation in “It's You.” Written after a couple's quarrel, this track bounces with a breathless melody and a desire to let troubles drift away like waves to the coast. From Nothing Will Keep Us Apart, it's a joyous ode to love's resilience and a celebration of overcoming life's bumps. Perfect for Feel-Good Love Songs or Motown Revival. It's You Written by Clementine Moss/Robert Preston/William Cameron Clementine: Vocals, Percussion Robert Preston: Bass William Cameron: Keys Laura Chandler: Backing Vocals Clementine Moss Nothing Will Keep Us Apart Producers: Clementine Moss and Robert Preston Engineer: Robert Preston, GetReel Productions Mastering: JJ Golden, Golden Mastering Publishing: C. Kingdom Publishing 2024 https://www.clemthegreat.com https://www.facebook.com/ClementineMossMusic/ https://www.instagram.com/clementinemossmusic/

A foggy San Francisco morning, ship horns echoing in the distance—this haunting ballad channels tango smoke and piano bar pathos. From Nothing Will Keep Us Apart, “Kill Me All Day” aches for a love that shatters boundaries. With its atmospheric depth and cinematic longing, it's a song for quiet moments of passion and reflection. Ideal for playlists like Piano Ballads or Indie Love Songs. Kill Me All Day Written by Clementine Moss/Robert Preston/William Cameron Clementine: Vocals, Percussion, Synths Robert Preston: Bass William Cameron: Keys Clementine Moss Nothing Will Keep Us Apart Producers: Clementine Moss and Robert Preston Engineer: Robert Preston, GetReel Productions Mastering: JJ Golden, Golden Mastering Publishing: C. Kingdom Publishing 2024 Purchase here: https://clementinemoss.bandcamp.com/track/kill-me-all-day-3 https://www.clemthegreat.com https://www.facebook.com/ClementineMossMusic/ https://www.instagram.com/clementinemossmusic/

"New Year's Day" is the first song on the record, Nothing Will Keep Us Apart. The song is about love! And how each moment holds the possibility for a new perspective, a new world, a new way of being. The song is a celebration of those moments that feel brand new, and how it's through the energy of love that we find every offer of a fresh start. https://www.clemthegreat.com

Clementine Moss' new album showcasing her songwriting and singing skills is the 7-song pop/folk release NOTHING WILL KEEP US APART. This is the first single released, “Your Love,” on December 10, 2024. “Most of my songs are about love, both to the other and the divine. Where do we find light when so much feels dark? It's only in love that we find freedom, difficult as it can be to hold fast to that truth. Addressing that difficulty is a favorite theme in this album.” Written with producer/bassist Robert Preston and keyboardist William Cameron, the song echoes artists like Tom Waits, St. Vincent and Norah Jones.

Clementine Moss reads this blog post from her blog Bliss and Drumming, about what songwriting means to her and how to proceed in a world fraught with chaos. __ The way music unites us, binds us, erases divisions, connects us at a cellular level, reminds us of our compassion and empathy, this is what I can speak rapturously of forever. In my life, I have met so many people, connected my heart to so many others, all through this magical language. Drums are language, songs are energy. I believe in the magic of it. I fall on my knees in devotion to what is truly singing. It is one of the few things I can say with certainty, I know.

From the blog BlissandDrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** We map out how we want it all to look, and we have a picture of the outcome. We create this picture based on the past, and it is through fear we speak. Fear of not having enough, fear of it not working out in the way we vision, fear of pain or sorrow, fear of change. I think I am supposed to know what the future is to look like. So I ask and ask and ask. In the past year I have been shifting to a different kind of prayer, a different type of conversation with the great unknown. I began working with a mantra meditation, and the words I focus on praise and thank. After doing this for several months, I suddenly found myself unreasonably happy. Something changed in my moments, and my moments have changed. I see that my prayers have been so one-directed. Now the energy is moving in another way.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** Airports have lost their charm, at least for the time being. It seems as if everyone is discombobulated. Humans have forgotten their easy flow of being, and there is a kind of uptight scrabbling and agitation that sets everything on edge. People have been cooped up in their own spaces, getting their demands met in every moment, and I guess they've forgotten how to comport themselves with strangers. Not every impulse gets met immediately when you're outside of your household, and people seem to have forgotten this as they bully their way to the counter or cut everyone off in traffic.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I am missing the meditation hall and its stillness. The hall I am imagining is the one at the Vipassana retreat center near Yosemite. The sound of the small gongs wake me at 4:30. I walk through foggy darkness, following shadows of the other meditators making their way. Small lights line the path that in the daytime is marked with single daffodils. The walk smells like California, pine and sage and sumac and wet leaves, and the hall smells a particular way. The best way I can describe it is stillness. The meditation mat is my little square of real estate, home base for ten days. I have a big blanket to wrap myself up. In the dark of the morning, the hall is dimly lit, and it is a challenge to sit and practice with the body remembering bed. In the morning meditation can be dreamy, and it is a challenge to keep focused. Time stands still, until the sound of chanting, and the gongs signaling breakfast.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. http://blissanddrumming.com/2021/03/the-question-of-not-enough/ ‎ *** I settled into life without the scramble of the constant travel of my music career. In the new stillness, I recognized within me a welling up, a kind of panic of not doing enough, not getting enough done. Without shows on the horizon, some mornings I woke in a kind of confused spin. Then, I noticed that in this confusion was a feeling of futility. I will never get enough done, so I might as well not even start. To witness this was a gift. Maybe there has always been this pushing, punishing dread of not doing enough, of not being enough. Maybe this has driven all my moments, and my impression of who I am. If I am not doing enough, then fundamentally, I am not enough. That’s a terrible feeling.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clem reads this piece. *** I have spoken to many people during the pandemic who have made the best of the situation, and who feel guilty about the fact they are doing ‘okay.’ Our society has become a place in which to say that all is well makes us feel ignorant or guilty. I think it is important for us to recognize what is working and what is peaceful. There must be an energy that is in the center, a moderating well-being that is here between the poles of terrible and ignorant. By cultivating this feeling of ‘okay-ness,’ it expands. Feeling good is a generative energy. Our perception can change our experience, and our actions. We might realize this same field of the night watchman exists in our greater reality. Is there a kind of hum beneath the surface, a kind of steady rhythm of breath in, breath out, that the whole of the planet experiences at all times, no matter what the dire situation being experienced? Beneath all the chaos, is all well?

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** A young man started showing up late nights, a sleight of hand artist who would entertain the patrons with card tricks. I’m not sure he was quite 21 years old. He was quiet and pale, with a sweetness to him. His talent was astonishing. The customers would get overwhelmed with his mastery, and they loved it. When I describe tricks he performed, I am an unreliable narrator. My attitude with sleight of hand is of total trust. I want to be fooled. I guess most people watch the magician to catch the tell, to find the flaw and figure out the way the trick works, but I enter a state of complete surrender. I want the magician to succeed and leave me astounded.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** How often do we get to find ourselves going where it is we want to go, with freedom from judgment? There is discernment of course, this sounds better to us than that, but so much of creative work is letting go of the internal rule follower, the inner judge, and just letting yourself open to what is here, asking to be expressed. This is why creative endeavor is salvation for us. We get to break out of our restrictions and just fly. In our daily life, there are so many do’s and don’ts, and the weight of that is heavy on us as we live with so many restrictions we feel placed on ourselves by others.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I spend a lot of time thinking about the ways in which human consciousness is transforming. For one thing people even a generation back didn’t grow up with the idea of “global community.” This concept is new in my lifetime. Once we were connected, first through the ease of travel and then through technology, our minds began to change. We started to realize that events across the planet have direct effect on us. Cause and effect became something different. Global. This is a gift, I believe, as with this knowledge, we can’t help but eventually lose our provincial and self-centered ideas. We can’t live for ourselves anymore. We not only see directly how our actions affect others, we do this in the spotlight of humanity’s gaze.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I recently read The Hidden Messages of Water, about the scientist who began analyzing the effect of the energetic environment on crystals in water. If you haven’t seen these studies, you can pull up the images online and see the beautiful snow flake patterns of the sentiments “I love you” and the song “Amazing Grace,” and the chaotic, disrupted patterns of hate and negativity on the water crystals. The take-away is our own direct response of vibration and frequency in our field, and how our physical being, 70 percent water, might cultivate protection against disruption of our crystals. This knowledge has created new rituals for me around the house. “Thank you water! Thank you! I love you!” before every hydration. “Thank you water! Thank you for keeping Henry healthy!” as I refill the pug’s bowl. I try to remember to do the same for my food, too. Suddenly, a little “thank you” before eating takes on new meaning.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** The drum begins. I begin my journey on a bluff, overlooking the Pacific. Rolling grassy hills, the coastline rippling side to side, and the big birds delighting in the marine updraft. There is an opening to a cave there, to my left. The first time I entered this cave, a wave of fear washed over me because it was so dark. Then I remembered: this is my shamanic journey! Turn on the light! And light flooded in from above, highlighting the massive space. A soft dirt floor, ferns and the distant sound of water. A lower world where everyone I meet has my best interest at heart. For a couple of years, culminating in the past few months of the quarantine, I have been studying Shamanic Counseling with the teacher Isa Gucciardi. This path is a surprise in my life, and yet I also feel as though I’ve been making my way here the whole time. Photo by Claudia Meyer from FreeImages

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I love a band. Being one of a small group forging a way through the landscape, experiencing days and nights together. The intangible connection outsiders intuit. The mystery of the moment after everything has been loaded and the van door shuts and what happens as we drive away. I love the animal protection that forms in a band, and the secret language that develops. This secret language – music – connects us in a profound way. The group sometimes comes closest together when attacked by the outside world, as a family does. We can struggle internally until something happens to the whole, and then we bind together, forgetting all pettiness. Buzz Osborne from the Melvins, when asked how to keep a band together for so long, said: Find a common enemy.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I’ve been thinking about power lately, as I watch the world struggle. To begin such a conversation, I can only reference what I know. So who better to illustrate my thoughts about power than John Bonham. Bonham was a powerful drummer, no question. He was powerful in all the ways our culture references power: heavy-hitting, with an ability to let fly a thunder relentless and pounding. All true, but I would argue that Bonham’s real power, and the reason he is beloved by so many, is in the subtleness of his groove. The reason Zeppelin songs feel the way they do, that exquisite “something” that has been chased by rock bands for half a century, is the translation on drums of the delicacy of power.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** For the most part, the past week of quarantine has looked much the same as it has for the past couple of months. The preponderance of birds, riotous flower bloomings, quiet streets. Then, a warm spell in San Francisco sending folks out to the parks. Overnight, it seems that facemasks have become obsolete, and big drunken parties of young people fill the grass. I don’t enter the park most days now, and walk Henry elsewhere. After months of lockdown, I can’t help but seeing that block-square grass patch as a big petri dish.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** My window seat lives in this little porch room off the kitchen. I imagine that one day the whole room will topple over in an earthquake, set on stilts as it is. We’ve got bedrock beneath us, and the house has weathered such rattling since the early 1900s, but still, I have a plan to leap into the kitchen and roll beneath the table should the shaking begin. You’re supposed to practice disaster routes so the shock of crisis doesn’t leave you paralyzed. I don’t go as far as leaping around in here and spoiling my comfortable perch, but I spend a little time imagining the tuck and roll before I forget all that and fall in love, all over again, with the breeze.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I know I keep remarking on this, but the birds in the gardens outside my window are really going to town again, under the paused skies of the early morning storm. 6AM is our time, the pug and me. We’re fortunate that built into this small apartment is enough room for solitude, but it’s still nice to have the mornings to ourselves. We’re the ones who take advantage of the pre-dawn hours. The old man caretakes the after-midnight ones. Enough space is important, since this is our reality now, gratefully sequestered behind these walls most of the time. When I wake in the morning, it takes some time to remember that reality looks different than it did not too long ago. Now and then it dawns on me how profound of a shift this is, and I marvel at the changes. As the days unfold, now and then I remember that there seems to be no end in sight. That’s always a shock, the lack of the finite.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** It was funny, really, and later it brought to mind the article we had both read about the spike in divorce rates after the quarantine was lifted in China. We had to venture out to the laundry. Harsh words were spoken after perceived carelessness. Then, escalation after a reconnaissance to the grocery. We had been doing well up until then, enjoying the time sequestered and getting to spend time together in a way we rarely do. As two working musicians/managers, we often go for months without being in each others’ company. This serves to make time together feel rather precious. Thus the longevity, and the ease with giving the other plenty of autonomy. Adding the outside world to our equation served to ignite a stress we’d each been feeling, and it all launched to the surface under the fluorescent lights.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** We deep clean the house. We retrieve things from storage to sell. Now that we are out of work for months we start thinking about things to off-load in order to keep the lights on. We make tense financial plans. I order dry goods for just in case. We check in with family and send condolences to friends whose long-term plans have been cancelled, check in with the elderly neighbor. And then, I wake up into a day where time is all mine. I find waiting for me all of these projects, all of these dreams and goals and plans, as present as birdsong and the chimes of Peter and Paul. I spend time in the morning in metta meditation, with my mind on all those who don’t have the resources I have, those who are ill and worried and alone. Then exercise, on the bike that I’m always too busy to use. Then the window-seat, and a reverie of now.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** Death is always on my mind, but in the best way. As we drag through the muck and mire of caring for an elderly relative, I often say to the old man, listen. Should it come down to you making these decisions for me, please just stick me in the cheapest, easiest place possible and leave me, go, live your life. I have spent years cultivating a way to be fine, anywhere. I lived for a year in a van, sleeping on floors and in truck stops. I have held my breath in showers in which I wore tennis shoes to be safe. I have had to slumber on disgusting green room couches and to depend on bathrooms that should have been condemned. I’ll be fine in a lo-fi rest home, for sure.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** This is where I’ve arrived with it all: peace, love, one-heart, common ground. A belief that separateness keeps us enemies, keeps us trapped in our suffering, keeps us simmering in a despairingly low vibration, keeps us choosing war and hatred. You and I are of the same consciousness, manifest to learn from each other. In fact, even the idea of “other” is mis-knowing, and keeps us in pain. Who wants to listen to all that baloney? Happiness writes white. Language falls short and words struggle to bring us anywhere. Walking with my vision on these truths is all I can do, I can’t convince anyone of it.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I have reflected some times, where the hell am I trying to go so fast? I have to be the first one anywhere, and where am I eventually going? Do I really want to be first? There is a vivid, funny memory in my mind of sitting in a living room with a group of children, and the adult saying that we were going to go outside to play, and leaping up and running outside to be first, only to bounce off of the sliding glass door. That’s me, on a spring propelling me to be first in line, no matter the consequences.

From her blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I also see this in the people I work with. I see that sometimes they don’t even realize that the patterns of misery they are caught have gradually let go in subtle ways, and when I ask after a few sessions about these old ways of being, it’s almost as if they’re surprised I’m asking. Someone who has not been able to sleep for years, for example, when I ask how they slept recently says, “pretty good,” not with any kind of amazement, but more like a matter of course. Whey wouldn’t they sleep well? It’s as if they don’t quite remember the angst of insomnia. Remarkable.

As a special edition of the Bliss and Drumming podcast, Clementine reads this piece, recently published at https://memoirmag.com/nonfiction/laguna-main-by-clementine-moss/. *** Sharona bleats from a nearby radio and I close my eyes and imagine Sharona, object of adoration. I imagine Jim Morrison, on a beach with a guitar, writing about his LA woman. I love the Doors. I move to ask if Becky likes the Doors, but her back stops the words from forming, glossy and solid and resolute in the bright sun. It seems that every back, every face these days locks me out. The words stay in my throat. Forget it. I lean back on sinking elbows and close my eyes against the glare. Jim Morrison lolls on the beach in my mind, and I let go of the day and follow him down to this other world. Do women get to be so free, lounging, writing, owning their dreams? Who will write of me?

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I want to say that opening oneself to be vulnerable feels like flying. First you have to push yourself out of the plane, out of the open door through the barrier of fear: fat and sappy and dumb and weak. But once you get over the ledge, once you think, you know what? Hanging out in this loud annoying metal contraption of a mind… or a plane… is over for me. I can’t take it any more! Then, you realize there is no plane. When we can’t take it any more and we throw ourselves overboard into the vast sky of the heart, I gotta tell you, it’s truly like flying. And once you’re out, you really can’t get back in the same way.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** A funny thing happened during a recent weekends of shows. An unease settled on me, and I felt myself raw and overly sensitive to the slights of others. Maybe it had to do with the heat and humidity of the Midwest weather, or maybe I’ve just been alone too much for a while and the shock of socializing was jarring. Whatever the reasons, I started to fixate a little too much on the typical annoyances of putting on a show. Sub-par backline equipment. The basement dressing room, sweaty and smelling as if a gas generator was on high pumping fumes through the rooms. Maybe it was knowing that each show would be a struggle on foreign gear, since I had flown to the shows instead of driving my own drums. Maybe it was the rude customer at the rental car place, or the loud 10-year olds and even louder mother behind me on the flight, or the stopped traffic from St. Louis to Illinois.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I, too, realized, as I sat on my little cushion with the dog snoring nearby, that I had nothing better to do than listen. I moved into the song, getting closer and closer, until I was inside of it, watching and listening in a way that was almost like being in the center of a symphony, with all its voices and colors and crescendos. This was a symphony not unlike one I attended once with dazzling modern sounds: whistles and metallic patterns and sirens. The sound settled into my awareness until it was not sound, and instead spread out like a ribbon, a wave, that carried me further and further into a feeling of openness. Judgment or preference would rise and fall, and each time this happened and released, I fell further into expanded being.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** After a while the park opens out into a long drive through the prairie. There is 2% of wild prairie left in the US and this is most of it. The sky is grey and the clouds low, and there is a long wooden walkway leading into the grass. We slip and slide on the ice out and out and out, until we stand with the land undulating around us like we’re standing on top of an ocean. The sky seals up the edges of our sight. I hear only the sound of my heart, the breeze on my cheek, trickle of water and the joy of small birds. There is no hum of humanity, no airplane or car noise. I think of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who is from a town nearby, and imagine for a second that I too am living in this world of prairie. A thought comes through about how much writing I would get done if I lived here, but I can’t hold on to that imaginary scenario long . I have a sense of the wind coming from the edges and I am aware only of expanse of mind, expanse of sky, the opening in my chest that seems to have become porous. For a moment, I am the sky, the plains, a stalk of wheat that feels itself blown through with the wind of time. It occurs to me just how different we are now, and what is gone. I don’t forget that living in a cabin in a prairie was probably terrifying much of the time, with the fear of starvation and weather and illness and other people. But how often does this pure connection happen for us now, and how much of the time was spent in this awareness then? What was it like to live in this reality, to live from this place of oneness with sky and earth? Did fear make room for this space? Where do we find this space now?

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I have a fantasy of monastery life. The 10-day silent meditation retreats I participate in are exquisite, and for so long, when I’m tired and feeling lost, I imagine living at a retreat like Thomas Keating, meditating and writing until the end of days. That will always be a dream. But now, I see how much more fruitful this lovely chaos seems to be for me right now. Maybe the drums are how I find the clear-light, the silence of consciousness. Maybe being a rock drummer is the Clementine version of monastic life. I certainly seem to be built for movement, and exertion, with a gift of stamina that may be lost in a monastery. It’s with challenge that we really transform, and what a challenging career and a way to spend my time have I chosen. I see how my music career IS my practice, as much as my counseling and meditation and writing and driving and all the other ways I spend the moments of this life. My practice is to let go of attachment to identity, attachment to concepts, and to access the heart, to live from the heart, to live in the heart. Moment to moment, present and in truth.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** The week in Costa Rica led up to my birthday. The travel back involved many legs and different planes, and I spent the day curled up on the couch sleeping it all away. I felt the pull to do something special, but sleeping seemed to be what was called for on this birthday. I was alone, the old man and the pug were out of town, and I let go of offers of fun knowing that I may need a recovery day after travel. Seems I was right. Off and on during the day, big regrets of not making the most of the day rose up, but I let those go. Birthday, shmirthday. Every day is celebration. I had been feted at the previous show. A river of well wishes waited for me on the phone and computer. I closed my eyes and drifted into the gratitude of the love in my life.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** As she told me this, I flashed on remembering when I started learning drumming. When I started playing drums, I had that freedom of feeling that everything was possible. I had no intention of being a professional musician, so learning drums was just interesting. It just opened up my mind to the possibility of doing something that I had never even considered. I didn’t have any blocks of thinking that it could be difficult. I just went into it with joy, and everything seemed to blossom. I certainly want to practice more. What kind of player would I be if I got it together and sat down every day for two hours? Well, I’ll keep at this intent and meanwhile, I open to the joy of playing whenever do I make it to the kit. I see how judgment about practicing has blocked the desire to practice, and how often I keep myself from drums because of this judgment. I see how some days, sitting for 10 minutes feels excruciating, as all judgment, of my process and ability, blocks all the joy.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** The ideas of popular culture aren’t the way real people live their lives. I think we’re all pretty aware of that, and becoming more aware of it daily. Our stereotypes dissolve when we interact, when we open our hearts and see into everyone’s personal struggles to belong. Media supports stereotypes, this is the lesson we’re all learning. Media is yet another layer to a reality that is not a reflection, but a distortion to what the truth is. When we take control of how we see reality, the truth can be dazzling. Turn off all media for a few days, take a lot of walks and interact with some strangers, and see for yourself.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this track: http://blissanddrumming.com/?p=599 *** I had a dream in which I was bathed in the white ash of a fire, the ash caked on like clay. A drum started, and with each beat of the drum, parts of me fell away with the ash, old debris, old ideas, old attachments. Each drum vibration rattled me open, unburdening me, and I became more see-through, until I felt pure, my heart clear as if set in glass. Then, I saw an image of all humanity in the form of my form, millions of people making up the one standing in fire.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming, Clementine reads this piece. *** So now, here I sit having to confront this new form in video recording. Self-compassion has been part of my practice, and it is paying off in that at times I am able to just observe this person here on tape as someone to whom I give love as I work. I know her struggles and the years and years of social pressure to reach some ideal of perfection. I know the trauma of early events and the deep ridges of personality that developed. I know the years of abuse she heaped on herself, in thought and action. She listened to that inner voice of criticism for so long she believed it to be truth. So I feel compassion for her, for having to listen to that megaphone in her ear for almost as long as I can remember. I edit the images and for every negative idea that rises, I allow it to appear and then dissipate in the vast sky of awareness that is real truth. I hear the judgments and I fall into sky. What can I do in this moment but love? No amount of judgment will change the information on the screen.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** The Drover is like a cave, with low ceilings, brick walls and round stucco fireplaces built randomly into small rooms. The lighting is yellow and warm, and the chairs are low wooden ones with rounded backs that set you perfectly to the table. There is a vaguely Spanish feel in the big wooden doors and the beamed ceilings. Shortly after being seated, a dark mound of bread loaf arrives with the knife stabbed in its heart. It is piping hot and served with iced butter. The whole place smells like the bread. The smell of baking bread affects me deeply in a primal place and I have zero ability to deny its call . I can say that in every fantasy of home life I have ever entertained, the place has smelled like this.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I know it’s worse for the person on the back bench, and any sudden brake will wake her. The van is a cradle I’m trying not to rock. As I drive I keep noticing when I get overly tense, and I feel my arms and hands clenched and heavy. When this happens, I take long deep breathes, into my belly, holding for a moment, and then breathing up and out the center channel of my body, up and out the top of my head. I rest in the heart energy when I feel agitated, and watch as worry and tension rises and falls. Meanwhile, the trees are silent and watching. I love how the redwoods hug the road and I feel a wave of sadness come through when I see that one was damaged in an accident. The mist lies heavy in the forest, and the van moans and whines as we make our way. I take my stillness from the big trees, and am able to fall into a deep peace as I drive.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** It’s funny how naming something, really sitting and allowing the pain to rise and give it space and form, it’s funny how much gets released. In fact, when I look at how I felt then and how I feel now, I see just how much I’ve let go, just how much lighter my outlook. I sat in that studio and wrestled with all the darkness, all of those clawing beasts that kept me unhappy and confused and stuck, and I let them live in songs. And as songwriting goes, there must be a counterpoint to the darkness, and therefore sometimes you find redemption.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/ *** And what kind of limitations do we project on others in order to keep ourselves feeling safe and knowing? I had a dear friend once who was 30 years older than me, and I was a chameleon, changing daily in my direction. Every time I thought I would shock him with some new revelation, he would register no surprise, no concern, just an open-hearted exuberance for whatever wonky idea I came up with. It was so nourishing to know that he accepted me, no matter what Clem iteration met him that day. How can we express this unconditional support for those in our lives? When we hear ourselves speak and we are speaking limitation and fear of change, can we catch the words and transform them? My friend wants a change of career or relationship, the young person takes a surprising turn of interest. When we express support for others we give ourselves a break, too, give ourselves permission to change.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** It’s an intangible thing, this feeling of belonging to place. I have always reveled in being peripatetic, and my life as a musician is a glory to that. For years I have traveled down roads and spent time in cities new to me. I have played in all states but one, and as I arrive in each place my imagination runs wild. Perhaps this city will draw me in, ring a bell of familiarity and catch me mysteriously in its lovely web. The Carolinas, Minnesota, Sedona, Wisconsin, Chicago, Oregon… all have held this fantasy in my heart. What would be like to set down roots in a place in which I know no one, a place with no connection to any part of my life up until now? I admire the brave immigrant who moves to a place knowing nothing of it. I feel the thrill of discovery when I imagine that. Through all of that, sitting here, I realize how much I appreciate this land, this state, this coast as connected to something deep in my cells that feels like comfort. The light seems more golden and the window through which I see the world is clear and familiar. The air is softer and my physical being breathes more freely than anywhere else. I often have the thought that if every human experienced this light, this air, this landscape, this sky daily, there could be no question of war or of unrest.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** First off I will say, so there’s no misunderstanding, I love you. This is not love that needs something from you, or is some sort of burden or expectation you need to carry around with you. I love you with our common heart. Common molecules, common history, common planet, common energy. We are One. I know this is not a popular belief these days with so much side-choosing, but it’s a fact. My love for you is the same energy that lies underneath the love I have for my self and for my family and my pets and my place of manifestation. Love, at the core of myself, this energy shared with you. Also, I love your music. Your baked goods. The silly things you say and the way you make me laugh. Your capacity for compassion overwhelms me. Your ability to create beauty fills my heart with wonder. You are creative and magnificent and I am blown away at how you fix things, and how you help.

This is a short meditation to let go of physical pain that arises. Please visit www.patreon.com/clemthegreat for weekly meditations and other personal meditation and energy healing resources.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. Photo by Frank Ranney. *** I see awakening as remembering to remember. My heart is open, I am an infinite being, the ground of consciousness that I am is expanded and perfect. If I could just remember this, all the time, then I would live in bliss. It’s this bouncing back and forth between ego reality and pure consciousness that is the challenge. If I could just remember to stay awakened I would just stay Awakened. And if I could just remember to Just Play More Drums, I wouldn’t have to sink down, get bummed and worried and live with all the mental baloney that meets me when dealing with challenges of daily life. If I just remembered to remember, how blissful my state no matter these illusions of moments.

A quick 10-Minute Meditation! Check out www.patreon.com/clemthegreat for these to be delivered to your inbox weekly!