Vote for us!

Vote for us!: "Vote for us!"

If you like Dawnya's songs, please vote for her using the link above. The winner of this contest will open for the Bangles.

Dawnya Featured on Women's Radio

Dawnya is featured on Harmonium on Women's Radio this month.



Listen *Live* as WomensRadio broadcasts the finest Independent Female Musicians in every style & genre, from all around the world.

Free download of Walking on Water

This month's free download is the title track from my album Walking on Water.

The song is about remembering your greatness, all you can do! Feel free to share the link/download with your friends.

Snippet of the lyrics:

Woke up this morning
Went for a walk

Surprised myself
When I walked off the dock

Even more surprised
I didn't sink

Not sure what happened
Not sure what to think

And now I'm Walking on Water ...
=D
Dawnya

Procrastination and Potato Chips

I am a procrastinator. There, I said it. No taking it back.

Webster’s dictionary says procrastination is to postpone something you dread. Here’s the silly part, I procrastinate doing the things I truly enjoy – writing, performing, singing – which makes no sense. If I’m going to put off the things I love, why can’t I procrastinate eating potato chips?

These things I enjoy so much (yet delay doing) are also my work. I guess I still struggle to see how something I love doing, something that makes me feel good to the core, can be called work, can be valued as work. Isn’t work supposed to be, well, work?

Not according to people in the know. Shakti Gawain, in her most excellent book Creative Visualization suggests, “You don’t have to exert effort to get where you want to go; you simply keep clearly in mind where you would like to go and then patiently, harmoniously follow the flow of the river of life until it takes you there.” In The Secret, there is one account after the other of living the life you desire easily, without effort, while enjoying the ride.

I believe this. In concept, it makes complete sense. Yet, that nagging voice in the back of my head keeps saying, “and what do you have to show for your efforts?” There’s the rub.

What I have to show is words, songs that dissipate into thin air, performances that, as soon as the curtain call is over, join the songs in the ether. I have nothing tangible to show for my efforts.

So, I procrastinate – which my synonym finder also calls delay, dawdle, dilly dally. Do I want to be a dilly dallier? I don’t think so.

I can dilly dally and do diddly, or do what I love and at least do something. Seems like I need to come to terms with the obvious fact that who I am and what I do cannot be measured in the tangible. My work cannot be held. But it can (and does?) have value (even if I never know what that value is).

I better go eat some potato chips and think on this awhile.

Dawnya

Good People Everywhere

I had a great “people” day last Thursday.

First, I was invited to meet the members of a public affairs firm in Spokane The meeting was the result of a couple of e-mails I sent off to somebody I didn’t know, who called me back, invited me to his house and whom, I’m sure, will become a good friend.

He saw something in my e-mail that said we might help people by working together. I left the meeting feeling good about people and the potential for doing good things for good reasons.

I then stopped by the Volkswagen dealership in Spokane Valley, WA.

Pardon me while I give you the set up: Our old VW (160,000 miles and counting) required a new battery last week. When power is gone from the car the radio goes into a “SAFE” mode which means no music until you reset the thing. You’re supposed to be able to disarm by pressing buttons and entering a code. I did all the right button pushing (I think) but the radio wouldn’t come back on. It just kept flashing SAFE SAFE SAFE.

So there I was at the VW dealership. No appointment. Didn’t buy the car there. I walked up to the service counter. Jeff, the assistant manager, smiled and said something like “hot enough for you?” and proceeded to listen to my rambling story about the radio.

He grabbed a special tool., walked with me to the old Jetta. With a flick of the tool, he popped the radio out of the dash, read a code from the side of the radio, walked back inside, checked the validity of the code on-line, walked back out to my car’s 100-plus-degree interior, pulled a couple of plugs out of the radio replaced them, held down the two buttons. SAFE disappeared as promised and yes, music!

“There ya go.”

“How much do I owe ya?”

“Not a thing”

Cool.

Then I traveled back to Sandpoint, looking for a place to have an antique pewter flask engraved before sending it to my son for his birthday. I had procrastinated getting it done.

First shop, “Sorry, try the trophy shop in Ponderay.” Then she gave me directions and told me she liked the flask.

Good gift daddy-oh!

The trophy shop. “We can do it, but you want it by when?!!! Kinda poor planning on your part.”

“Yep. Guilty as charged..”

“ No matter. Have you tried the Jewelry Store in the Mall?”

“Nope, wanted to try you first.”

“Here, I’ll call the Jewelry Store for you.”

“Huh? You don’t have to do that.”

“No problem, sorry we couldn’t get it done for you by tomorrow. Maybe they can.” She dialed the phone and handed it to me.

“Jewelry Store. Sure, right up our alley. Tomorrow? No Problem.”

These days do come along. And they come along more often when I remember to serve others as I want to be served.