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Dalton
Roberts |
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In June of 2003 I retained in my daily journal a copy of a letter I wrote to Bill Littleton. Let me just go straight to that letter: “When I was writing at Cedarwood Music in the early 70s, Minnie Pearl would come by the front desk and chat with her friend Dolly Denny. They would chatter and gossip and giggle like two schoolgirls. I was awed by her child-like nature and overwhelming pleasantness. While I was dying to meet her, I never could bring myself to interrupt her wonderful laugh sessions with Dolly. But one day when I came in Dolly stopped me and introduced me to Minnie. I wanted to hug her so bad. I wish now I had.” This experience of disappointment in myself taught me the valuable lesson to maximize the spiritual juice I get out of the people in my life. You see, that’s what I wanted from Minnie. Spiritual juice. You could get a super charge of it just looking into her face. That was part of her power and glory. When she and Dolly had their get-togethers, you could feel an electric aura spread through the entire office. I know you know exactly what I am talking about because we have all known people who were bigger than life. As the Psalmist said, “Their cups run over.” I am certain I would have gotten that hug from Minnie if I had just asked for it. She was always hugging people and letting her sweet inner self permeate their being. When I was a boy I would walk across the railroad tracks behind our home place and go down to Chickamauga Creek to fish. Sterchi’s Dairy always had a big patch of sugar cane in that area which they ground up for their dairy silo. I would take my pocket knife and cut off a stalk, then cut it into six inch pieces, then split the hard outer covering and take out the sweet pith. When I’d bite into it, juice would literally squirt out. In my memory, few things stand out as that delicious. Look at the people in your life and you will immediately know those with the greatest spiritual juice. Seek ways to be with them. Ask them for a hug. They are your spiritual transformers. I have few regrets in my life but two of them are that I didn’t go to Missouri and visit my favorite poet and writer, James Dillet Freeman, and then to Texas to meet Hall of Fame songwriter Floyd Tillman. From afar, they constantly pumped their creative juice into my spiritual carburetor. I did correspond with Freeman for 11 years and a close friend of Tillman’s often sent me notes and photos about his life and shared some stories that made me feel I actually knew him. Fortunately, we don’t have to drive halfway across the country to find people who resonate powerfully with our own souls. They are all around us and most of them are pleased to share their essences with us. I went to Nashville a few years ago and spent a day with Bill Littleton to get juiced up. No one writes about music and the creative self with more juice than Bill. If you are a writer or artist of any kind or if music is one of your passions, you may want a trial subscription to his newsletter The Bridgeworks (billlittleton@ispwest.com). Yes, I wish I had hugged Minnie Pearl. But it’s OK. I have hugged her many times in my heart. Visit Dalton's website at www.daltonroberts.com and you will find his gathered writings at www.ipsfeatures.com
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