Hello, Sweet Readers, I’m sorry I haven’t been adding to your inbox lately. I came down with Covid on tour and I’m still trying to get my energy back to 100%. It’s heavy quicksand to shake off. I can report, with gratitude, from the front lines that the vaccine works as do the precautions of masking with hand washing and sanitizing. I’d be in
Another spider lover! Sometimes I think I'm the only one. 🖤 I hope you heal quickly, both physically and spiritually. Your music, art, voice, and animal pics are a gift.
Oh Neko. Thank you as always for your raw sincere honesty. I’m reading this while weeping in my bed in the middle of the day. Depression like I’ve never experienced before in my life has me reeling and is disrupting my home life. I too after being diligent with my covid protocols and being double vaccinated, got it just over a month ago and recovered. The shame I felt was real though not warranted. I’ve mostly weathered this pandemic ok and life gives us all the big and little tests. I’ve had some real big life tests this year and I am not proud of the fact that I’m not conquering them. I’d like to think I’m usually pretty put together. The rock for my friends and family. I’ve never been perfect but I feel so flawed and fucked up and I’m just spiraling like I’ve never known before. Reading your honest words is so comforting. Thank you for sharing. I believe the strongest of us are the ones who can be the most openly vulnerable. I’m sorry you’ve had a rough time recently too. I love your optimism. Please keep creating. You undoubtedly touch so many others souls as deeply as you touch mine.
From the beauty of their perfect webs to their incessant appetite for small flying insects to the way they pounce on-wrap-inject-feed on their prey, I love everything about spiders... except walking through a web and not being able to wipe away the one remaining thread that somehow has become tangled in an eyebrow or eyelash and proceeds to tickle my nose or floats across my vision for the next fifteen minutes.
But, most of all, I'm glad that you're feeling better, Neko.
Hi Neko. Sonoma was a sparkling night and no doubt there were spiders below our feet and the trees. 50% live without the tangling webs? I’m going to say hopping spiders are pretty darn awesome too.
Thanks just for saying the word: depression
It’s really a tough and rough neighborhood inside my depression. I believe too many half truths and lies that I tell myself when things are going askew.
But without the people around me to bolster me through these times I believe it would be harder to lift my head up.
Your voice has helped me wade through so many pains. Your songs remind me the outcome isn’t always gonna be Roses. And the heart you put into your recording transports me into a magical world.
We heal ourselves but not necessarily by ourselves. It’s the people that care for us that are the bandaids for our hearts.
Sending spider love in solidarity from Brooklyn.🕷 I didn’t know that about 50% of spiders not making webs. I might need to read a geeky book about them for pleasure to discovering more. Any recs? I also send love and healing your way, both Covid and depression-related. I too have grappled with the latter on and off most of my life, and pandemic living, and all the other political apocalypse stuff, have given those hovering depressive fogs plenty to feed on. It sounds unremarkable, but for me, going for long walks, or even short ones, as often as possible, has been a way to fend off those darker mosquito swarms and keep them at bay. Harder or perhaps impossible to manage, obviously, if covid is flattening your system. Music and art, per usual, have been the other main things to get me through. Nothing you don’t already know or do, I would think.
Rest up and listen to your body even when you’re impatient to re-emerge. I have a lot of friends who suffered through covid, including several who have the long haul version, and one of the most fucked up things about it is how it sort of retreats so you think you’re okay and then it pounces again. All this to say, the holistic wisdom seems to be to go slow even when you’re starting to feel fine again. In any case, sending lots of healing vibes your way.
I always embue spiders with a human-like sarcasm. As in "Ok, I'm out of here. I see they are using the crystal dome to encapsulate me rather than the everyday pint glass. Love?
When I see backlit strands of those wisps of a spider ballooning, I say a beau voyage of sorts. Wondering what port of call they'll end drifting to land in.
I can't believe I missed this post. I know it's the time of year, but I've also run in to a lot of spiders lately and I've been thinking about thinking about them in a spiritual context, particularly web building (though noted that about half don't). They're said to symbolize strength and endurance, and the spiders weaving them symbolize art, craft, and perseverance. For me now I think about story craft as well. I can't help but think about all the shit you are going through, and I think the spiders is so appropriate. I didn't have covid, but I spent the first two weeks of September with two infections and a cold and I am still trying to fully recover from both so I feel you on this. I'm honestly surprised about how you didn't mention that spiders also eat mosquitos and all the pesky bugs that annoy us. They are also given very little credit for doing this job, and we fear them to the point of forgetting that they are essential. I don't know how that ties in but it feels like it does.
No apologies necessary. We love you and hope you continue to feel better. As with all of your other posts, this is beautiful. I always feel bad if I walk through a spider web and mess it up. For months we had a spider keep a little pantry going in a thick string outside our kitchen window. Thanks, too, for naming depression. I've been bobbing up and down in it and am grateful to have support, because I know not everyone does. Your music has always put the good and the bad times into words and stories in ways that I am grateful for too. Much love to you.
Had the song I’m a Man in my head about 2 hours ago. Sending you the good vibes that gave me when it happened. Get your strength up so we can hear you soon live. The wolf spider in my mailbox sends warm wishes and swift recovery regards.
Another spider lover! Sometimes I think I'm the only one. 🖤 I hope you heal quickly, both physically and spiritually. Your music, art, voice, and animal pics are a gift.
Oh Neko. Thank you as always for your raw sincere honesty. I’m reading this while weeping in my bed in the middle of the day. Depression like I’ve never experienced before in my life has me reeling and is disrupting my home life. I too after being diligent with my covid protocols and being double vaccinated, got it just over a month ago and recovered. The shame I felt was real though not warranted. I’ve mostly weathered this pandemic ok and life gives us all the big and little tests. I’ve had some real big life tests this year and I am not proud of the fact that I’m not conquering them. I’d like to think I’m usually pretty put together. The rock for my friends and family. I’ve never been perfect but I feel so flawed and fucked up and I’m just spiraling like I’ve never known before. Reading your honest words is so comforting. Thank you for sharing. I believe the strongest of us are the ones who can be the most openly vulnerable. I’m sorry you’ve had a rough time recently too. I love your optimism. Please keep creating. You undoubtedly touch so many others souls as deeply as you touch mine.
Sincerely,
Shannon
From the beauty of their perfect webs to their incessant appetite for small flying insects to the way they pounce on-wrap-inject-feed on their prey, I love everything about spiders... except walking through a web and not being able to wipe away the one remaining thread that somehow has become tangled in an eyebrow or eyelash and proceeds to tickle my nose or floats across my vision for the next fifteen minutes.
But, most of all, I'm glad that you're feeling better, Neko.
Hi Neko. Sonoma was a sparkling night and no doubt there were spiders below our feet and the trees. 50% live without the tangling webs? I’m going to say hopping spiders are pretty darn awesome too.
Thanks just for saying the word: depression
It’s really a tough and rough neighborhood inside my depression. I believe too many half truths and lies that I tell myself when things are going askew.
But without the people around me to bolster me through these times I believe it would be harder to lift my head up.
Your voice has helped me wade through so many pains. Your songs remind me the outcome isn’t always gonna be Roses. And the heart you put into your recording transports me into a magical world.
We heal ourselves but not necessarily by ourselves. It’s the people that care for us that are the bandaids for our hearts.
Sending spider love in solidarity from Brooklyn.🕷 I didn’t know that about 50% of spiders not making webs. I might need to read a geeky book about them for pleasure to discovering more. Any recs? I also send love and healing your way, both Covid and depression-related. I too have grappled with the latter on and off most of my life, and pandemic living, and all the other political apocalypse stuff, have given those hovering depressive fogs plenty to feed on. It sounds unremarkable, but for me, going for long walks, or even short ones, as often as possible, has been a way to fend off those darker mosquito swarms and keep them at bay. Harder or perhaps impossible to manage, obviously, if covid is flattening your system. Music and art, per usual, have been the other main things to get me through. Nothing you don’t already know or do, I would think.
Rest up and listen to your body even when you’re impatient to re-emerge. I have a lot of friends who suffered through covid, including several who have the long haul version, and one of the most fucked up things about it is how it sort of retreats so you think you’re okay and then it pounces again. All this to say, the holistic wisdom seems to be to go slow even when you’re starting to feel fine again. In any case, sending lots of healing vibes your way.
First off, sending you all the positive vibes I can muster and wishing you well with my whole heart.
Seeing you in Sonoma was magical. The katydids/crickets were a lovely backing band to the music.
Thank you for hitting the road, sharing your songs and being so honest in these posts.
Depression, spiders and all.
"Maybe Spider . . .
Maybe Spider . . ."
I always embue spiders with a human-like sarcasm. As in "Ok, I'm out of here. I see they are using the crystal dome to encapsulate me rather than the everyday pint glass. Love?
When I see backlit strands of those wisps of a spider ballooning, I say a beau voyage of sorts. Wondering what port of call they'll end drifting to land in.
You heal on and mend, Neko...
OMG Neko! I knew you got it!
You had me at "brutal elegance."
I can't believe I missed this post. I know it's the time of year, but I've also run in to a lot of spiders lately and I've been thinking about thinking about them in a spiritual context, particularly web building (though noted that about half don't). They're said to symbolize strength and endurance, and the spiders weaving them symbolize art, craft, and perseverance. For me now I think about story craft as well. I can't help but think about all the shit you are going through, and I think the spiders is so appropriate. I didn't have covid, but I spent the first two weeks of September with two infections and a cold and I am still trying to fully recover from both so I feel you on this. I'm honestly surprised about how you didn't mention that spiders also eat mosquitos and all the pesky bugs that annoy us. They are also given very little credit for doing this job, and we fear them to the point of forgetting that they are essential. I don't know how that ties in but it feels like it does.
I have two of these same species of spider on my back porch. I love to check on them daily.
No apologies necessary. We love you and hope you continue to feel better. As with all of your other posts, this is beautiful. I always feel bad if I walk through a spider web and mess it up. For months we had a spider keep a little pantry going in a thick string outside our kitchen window. Thanks, too, for naming depression. I've been bobbing up and down in it and am grateful to have support, because I know not everyone does. Your music has always put the good and the bad times into words and stories in ways that I am grateful for too. Much love to you.
Happy to hear you’re on the mend.
Had the song I’m a Man in my head about 2 hours ago. Sending you the good vibes that gave me when it happened. Get your strength up so we can hear you soon live. The wolf spider in my mailbox sends warm wishes and swift recovery regards.