We definitely aren’t waiting until the Equinox to wish you all a Happy Spring!  Temperatures are warmer than normal across most of the country, flowers are sprouting here in the canyon, and the Junipers are already releasing clouds of nose-tickling pollen into the air.  Wolf’s normally short nights are even shorter due to his allergies, and he’s hard at work today after only 2 hours of sleep.  I have had a tickley nose too, making it harder for me to sing as I do to praise the canyon, announce a hot outdoor bath, or call our girl Rhiannon back from a riverside adventure.

While I love singing songs with lyrics (on key or not!), the melodies people know me for tend to have tones instead of words, evocations of the spirit of this magical place as I feel and channel it.  Kiva pointed out how first time visitors usually think they are hearing playing a cascade of notes on the flute but eventually realize it’s just me, letting some of the joy and power of the place come out after taking so much in!  Wolf worked with me to write and record a few of these freeform songs, for the album we did a decade or so ago called “The Enchantment” by GaiaTribe.  It was produced with alternative audiences in mind, and while still available on CD from us ($1- to 20. suggested donation), we wish we had created it with a wider audience in mind.  For those of you who have wondered how I sound, I want to offer you a free album cut in Mp3:

Song for the Ancient Ones:   01-song-for-the-ancient-ones.mp3

Just imagine me singing standing on the rock above the river, birds replying and river supplying a drone as the notes echo off the cliffs.  Hope you enjoy it!

Also big thank you’s go out this month to Apprentice Applicant Renee’ who has volunteered to take over the bulk of the Animá outreach.  We simply don’t have the time to do this well and never have, so hopefully she will not just be good at it but get satisfaction form reaching more people.  There are a few ways that you could help her and us, if you want.  Please write us or post us with any:

-Ideas and addresses for cool shops, cafes and learning centers that might be willing to post Animá correspondence course or event flyers

-Contact info for any online magazines, forums etc. that we can either submit articles to or post about events on

-URLs for websites you think might be a good fit for our traditing links with

-The names and addresses of any regional or national publications (food, herbal, ecology, nature, spiritual) that you suggest we try to write for

 Your help and ideas, like your love, always means a huge amount to us!

For a sense of what it means to feel this native and placed, I suggest reading “The History of Animá Center” found in the archives at left, and the continuing series “The Search for Home” which we’re posting part 4 of below.

Have a WONDERFUL early Spring!

-Hugs, Loba

(Photo of Kiva (on the left) and Loba (on the right) (c) 2008 by Jesse Wolf Hardin)

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Categories: Announcements, Updates & Canyon Tales, Loba Hardin -Writings

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Announcements, Updates & Canyon Tales, Loba Hardin -Writings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.