https://youtu.be/s0ilMQVQLOk

✨ I learned that Patti Smith was going to be bringing her 12~date "Songs & Stories" tour, in support of her beautiful new book, "A Book of Days", to Nashville a little too late...or so it seemed. When I found out about it it had already sold out since Oz Arts is a small venue. I really wanted to go & for the first time I contemplated buying tickets from one of those dreaded resale websites where you never know if your tickets will actually exist! For a few days I'd go to the resale website, put the tickets in the cart and just never be able to check out. I decided to call Parnassus Books who was co~presenting the event & had been the sole ticket seller to see if the format in which they'd sold the tickets matched up with the form of ticket the reseller said they had. I was outside when I first called & the very sweet bookseller who answered the phone, named Madeline, couldn't hear me due to a bad connection, so I told her I would call back later. When I returned home, I called Madeline back & she was so sweet & kind, wanting to make sure I wouldn't get ripped off by the reseller, so 3 times (3 is my lucky #, by the way) she asked a co~worker a question pertaining to the original sale of the tickets. On the third time, the stores' account manager, Elise, overheard what Madeline was saying & said, "Tell her to go onto our website RIGHT NOW! A woman who couldn't go just called me to please ask for a refund of her tickets & I've just now put them back up for sale!" I couldn't believe it when I went online & THERE THEY WERE! Can you imagine how fast I pressed the "Purchase Tickets" button?! Suddenly I was going to see Patti Smith! And for only $48 ("Book of Days" included!) instead of the resellers asking price of $84 per ticket!

I didn't REALLY start listening to Patti Smith until the fall of last year (I've, of course, read about her since I was 8, though) during the painful days, weeks, & months, of having lost my Chihuahua, Beakey, to pulmonary hypertension. What made me start listening to her was that one night I happened upon an interview with her on You Tube where she spoke of the deeply painful loss of her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, to heart failure on November 4th, 1994. She was so honest about the pain that she still deeply & will always deeply feel. She also spoke about the deep ways in which she absolutely feels connection with him every day. Over the course of this interview it became very apparent to me, she's one of the kindest, most compassionate people there is, so, of course, I wanted to begin listening to her. The first album of hers I fell in love with is her 2007 collection of covers called "Twelve". Her version of Neil Young's "Helpless" touched me profoundly because it describes exactly how I was feeling in my loss of Beakey, who I love & miss so painfully. Listening to interviews with her and to "Twelve" helped me through these very painful days. She also made me laugh a lot. I laughed out loud when I heard her mention someone whose birthday it was that day & then she said, "Well, I know everyone's birthday it is every day.", because I also know everyone who's birthday it is every single day! For me this comes from astrology being such a significant part of who I am. She rattled off the days' birthdays & I was dying laughing because I also can do that every day! So, since I thought she might be signing the books last night (that turned out to not be a part of it), I brought a birthday card for her since, of course, I know her birthday is December 30th. I knew I would definitely talk with her about the days' birthdays (yesterday was Bjork, Goldie Hawn, & Marlo Thomas), so, of course, I wanted to acknowledge her own! I didn't end up getting to give her my birthday card but when I opened my book up this morning I discovered for the first time where I had placed it when I tucked it inside just after she left the stage last night...on May 3rd, which is my birthday. I do know that those we love and have lost do loving things for us all the time and communicate with us in very clear ways that will say, "I know where you are tonight, I know what you're doing. I know the pain you've been going through. Every day, I'm listening to you and helping you..." And, in my case, "Happy Birthday! I hope you had fun at the show I got you tickets for! I Love You! ❤️❤️ Love, Beakey"

Here are some of my favorite images from the show last night, including a picture of a porcelain dove her father really loved from when he was a member of " The Bird of the Month" club, and a link to the video I took of her & her son, Jackson, performing " My Blakean Year". (It's a copy & paste link ~ if you watch it, yes, that's me laughing in the funny parts!) My sister & I were sitting in the second row for this amazing, very intimate performance! Enjoy it! Oh...and if you should bump into them today, wish Happy Birthday to Little Steven, Scarlett Johansson, Jamie Lee Curtis, & Hailey Bieber!

Love,

Jennifer ✨❤️❤️✨