Someone once asked me, “what stops your creativity?”

It’s not hard for me to identify the time I felt least creative. It was when we were living in Nigeria. We were in a security nightmare… despite armed guards surrounding our compound we also needed armed guards on our house, just to protect the two of us. I wrote nothing during that time. I tried but it was like staring into a black hole… nothing came. After all the effort of packing up my studio and shipping it to Africa, it just stayed in the box. For me the biggest thing that stops creativity is fear.

As songwriters I guess we get used to managing fear – I remember my first song critique at Estes Park (Cindy Wilt was very gentle with me), my first ever cowrite, my first ever cowrite with a pro, playing songs to a publisher for the first time, even letting friends listen to my work has not been easy. And then there’s the whole performing thing. 

Would anyone ‘dare to suck’ if they felt they would get torn apart for saying something less than brilliant? Would anyone suggest a new idea if they thought it's bound to be dismissed?

As Christian songwriters I think it can be a little easier… I can honestly say that without exception all of my cowriters have been good people. We also share a deeper purpose that unites us in the first place. But there are still times when, for whatever reason, we need to find a safe place inside ourselves to let the creative child out to play.

I once asked a successful songwriter why they have done so well. Their response was ‘I just keep coming back’. And thinking of the tectonic shifts that are happening in the music industry right now that must be the best advice. As the business creaks and groans its way into establishing new models the songwriters that will be there at the end will be those who have found how to put aside their fear and focus on simply writing the best they can.

I’m sure some will think ‘easier said than done’ and I know where you're coming from. But I guess for many it's too much part of who they are for them to have much choice.

S.

Suddenly woke up remembering that my car was left outside the main gates of a car workshop last night. They had already opened. Nothing would have been able to get past it. The car stopped working while Sandra was driving to an appointment with last night with Barts (her car had had a flat battery). So I just jumped on my bike and gave them the key. The guy wasn’t happy.

There are a million things to do and everything is due yesterday or the day before. My todo list is still getting longer. I’m feeling out of sync. Today I need to be a big boy.

S.

It’s 9.10am on Wednesday morning and everyone else in the house is still fast asleep. That's unheard of. The last 24 hours went very quickly. We all crashed last night. So most of our bags remain unpacked. I’m thinking I might get a longer lie in when I get back from my next trip.

It’s funny coming back from such a long time away… viewing life from the outside until the familiar takes over. I like that moment, I feel I can be more objective about what I want for the next season.

I'm surprised at how much stuff I’ve not really been away from – anything online or musical – which is the bulk of my life. There’s a big pile of snail mail which is 95% recyclable trash. Other stuff, like the leaky drain pipe, bulbs that need replacing in the kitchen, tiles that need refixing etc etc  will get added to the todo list.

I’m determined to make some changes to the routine. Think I need to write those down before they get lost.

Guess I should take up ‘beverages’ before Sa’s tea gets cold.

S.

After:

• 22 hours travelling in
• 3 cars
• 1 train
• 1 plane, and
• 3 meals
• 2 snacks, with
• 13 pieces of luggage, using
• 1 porter
• 2 rickety Gatwick trolleys.

We’re home, safe and sound. 22 hours is actually quite good time. Thanks for the prayers.

S.

Well, it’s 12.30am and I’ve just put the dishwasher on for the last time here at Cindy and Sigmund’s.

It’s difficult going home. It would be after a month on holiday anywhere. And although we’re all excited about seeing family and friends back in England we will really miss everyone here… we’ve had the most wonderful time with so many highlights.

Like, the baby shower, hooking up at the Zabkas, hanging out with Ross, Leslie’s Poppy Seed Chicken (yum), Pizza with Barry and Robin, supper with Joy and Nate, the Smoky Mountains, Dollywood and Splash Country, showing everyone BBMP, the Creation Museum, my afternoon with John Mays, Sandra getting seriously into country music, Fellowship Bible Church (if only we could be there every week), Poppy coming out of Sunday school saying it was fantastic (that’s a first), the miles we’ve driven listening to the children watching the DVD of Annie in the back seat, starting my first ever musical, the other writing I did (quality over quantity!), going out for ice cream, jumping into our splash pool for the first time in 105 degrees, downtown Franklin, lunch at the rainforest café in Opry Mills, + + + +

We are all going home changed a little. As a family our adventure has brought us closer to each other but also closer to so many people here. Sandra has met my friends here and now feels more part of what I do. The children seem to have grown up a lot and Poppy and Moo I think will find it hard to settle back into their own rooms after sharing for a month here. And Barty - well, no one will recognize him he's grown so much. Poppy and Moo have really enjoyed each other’s company this holiday. I’ve enjoyed having a little time to settle in… normally my trips here are so crazy there’s little time to do basic stuff. So it’s been fun using drive-thru banking for the first time, getting a US cell phone to cut call costs over here, looking at property (we always do on holiday – wherever we are!) and generally enjoying small town life in rural America.

As a writer I’ve been able to see Nashville in a slightly different way – a way that makes me want to make the opportunities I have here work even more than ever – and with a little more direction on what that means.

The only thing is… I know it will be difficult to come back here in October without missing Sa and the children terribly. Especially after all the kisses Poppy has left for me wherever we have gone.

Here’s to a safe 28-hour journey home!

S.

   Sorry for the radio silence. We decided to go on a little adventure and drove up to the Kentucky/Indiana/Iowa border to visit the amazing Creation Museum near Cincinnati. It ended up being a few www-free days.

The museum opened less than 3 months ago and is a $27m interactive hi-tech experience set up by an organisation called Answers In Genesis. It’s all about proving and celebrating creation as told in the Bible. And answering questions like:

• Did Adam have a belly button?
• Did Eve have an extra rib?
• How did creation happen?
• Did God create dinosaurs?
• How does our current age and culture fit with the Bible?
  

It’s bi-line is ‘Prepare to Believe’. And it delivers on that with hard evidence to counter popular evolutionist theories and so many wonderful facts and figures about creation that I'd never heard before. There’s a planetarium, a cinema with shaking seats that spits out rain in appropriate places, two floors of animatronics and other displays including life-sized models of Noah’s ark (just a section!), the garden of Eden, Babel and more. There’s also Noah’s café which we ended up in more than a few times when Barts needed topping up.

It’s such a great place. They budgeted for 200,000 people to go through the gates in the first year and they’ve already reached that target. There’s so many things for kids to do to really bring the whole story of creation to life. There’s a great shop that sells loads of DVDs and books to help people get behind the arguments further and for kids to take home their favourite dinosaur.

For us it was a wonderful thing to do now because Poppy is about to get bombarded with anti-creation stuff at school and we’re keen to offer her an alternative that makes more sense in advance of that. And to have answers for her when she comes home with questions. And Sandra’s about to start a course with Answers in Creation which she’s so excited about.

Our overall rating: 5 stars. If you get a chance you must go, there’s something for everyone.

S.

... please stop putting all this American food in front of me before I explode… I’m starting to look like Brad Pitt.

S.

Got back from the Smokies late this afternoon after some dodgy driving and temperatures that felt like they were straining the air conditioning on our car (got up to 108 degrees at one point).

We had a great time, despite some challenges. We had a day in Dollywood (hilarious) and a day in Splash Country (fun, despite being limited by little people). Sandra and Barts stayed in the wonderful cool cabin we had just outside Pigeon Forge. It turned out to be so much better than we imagined – two sets of air conditioning, a hot tub on the back porch, dishwasher, tv’s and dvds in each bedroom, loads or space and it was wonderful waking up to the sun on the pine walls and floors.

The challenges were twofold – 1) the temperatures – just made it impossible to do a lot of things outside and 2) the critters – we had some evil looking spiders in the cabin and I personally dealt with (killed and disposed of) two scorpions. Although they were only small they still gave us the jitters and made us nervous about spending too long in the three bathrooms we had. Just hate to think what could have happened to Barts if he got stung of whatever scorpions do.

Anyway, I got back here to about 60 emails two of which were a pleasure to read…

1.    A note from Twila who told me our Sheri Easter/Vince Gill cut has got to #2 on Singing News Southern Gospel charts.
2.    We’ve another cut on the Dills new album here called 'God Will Go'

I better go to bed because my eyes are getting heavy and I need to be alive tomorrow.

S.

Had a fun day today – after a quick breakfast we made the 9.35 service at Fellowship Bible Church before a brief excursion to Wall Mart to buy a DVD player for the children in the back of the car. We’re going to be doing a few miles over the next few days and we’re keen to have options. 

Lunch was at Wild Noodles and after finding Maggie Moos in Cool Springs closed we headed home where Sa and Barts stayed for the afternoon to rest while Pops, Moo and I went swimming at the Henry Horton State Park. There’s a huge swimming pool there that they love going to. Moo fell asleep on the way home. Sometimes it’s like he’s so much older than a three year old. Great fun tho.

Tonight I was going to Barry’s place to hang and talk tech but that didn’t work out. So that gave me a little more time to prepare the car for our journey tomorrow, register my new US cellphone, activate my new US debit card and drain the pool.

Tomorrow at 6.00 a.m. or earlier if the children wake us up, we’ll be jumping into the car to make our way to the Smoky Mountains for a few days. Should be fun – exploring the mountains and going to Dollywood. Our log cabin is brand new and looks like it’s top spec – but if it hasn’t got air conditioning we might all be sleeping in the car. Or coming home.

Anyway if wireless internet hasn’t got up there (which I doubt, since the Y at Estes Park has it and that’s another 2000 ft up!) this might be the last post for a few days.

But if you need to contact me I’m always on the end of my new American cellphone. Or my old English one.

Speak soon,

S.

This morning we woke up and got on with chores before it got too hot. Mine included taking the trash to the dump ☺, hoovering everywhere, cleaning the pool and emptying the dishwasher. Driving back from the dump in 89 degrees, blue skies, windows down, our 4 litre SUV purring along the dusty country roads, my little boy sitting next to me in the front making fun conversation, it was a nice, satisfying tomato-free moment.

S.

I don’t know the difference between trash and garbage but I was dreaming about it when I woke up in a mid-vacation-air-conditioning-set-too-low fever. Our trash is building up a little because the way things work here in rural Nashville is that when it gets to a certain level you load it into your car and take it somewhere. It’s that last bit (the somewhere) I have no information on right now and the reason we have a little mountain in our garage.

Well, in my dream I'd taken out kids’ car seats from our rented SUV, pushed down the back seats and was loading in the bags and bins one by one. Then, just as I was loading the next-to-last one bin, I tripped and as I hit the floor a torrent of spaghetti sauce, cardboard packaging and diapers came cascading down onto me…

... and then I woke up. That would normally be a good thing. But as I woke up my eyes focussed on the stationary ceiling fan in our bedroom and it looked just like a squashed tomato coming right at me. It kinda made me get out of the way. So having really been on the floor and wide awake I thought I’d write up my story to get it out of my system.

Thanks again for listening. Now I know there's no spaghetti sauce all over me I feel I can go back to bed.

S.

I caught the end of TV program on the UK’s God channel just before we came away. It was a panel of about 7 American men talking about worship songs. One of them said something that stuck with me.

He painted the picture of an average guy perhaps reluctantly (but not showing it) going to church to please his wife and family being compelled by an energetic worship leader to sing words that normally he wouldn’t dare say as long as there was a single soul within earshot because they are, well, too female.

Here’s a selection of lines from the top-25 worship songs in the UK over the last 12 months. Would your average guy say things like:

‘You’re altogether lovely’
‘You’re my all, you’re the best’
‘Set my heart on fire’, or
‘For I am His and He is mine’

I'm not sure he would.

Earlier this week I looked at an old song I wrote that I thought I could use in a cowrite and sure enough it was found to contain similar phrases and because of that I didn't use it.

So maybe he has a point? Is there more we can do to achieve authenticity in worship? Maybe it’s not just a guy thing? There must be something that connects in these songs because they are the UK’s top-25. But can we write songs that connect better?

So I guess I feel challenged… how to write worship songs that are relevant and authentic but avoid being irreverent and cliché... and too female?

This could be an interesting journey.

S.

It’s the most perfect evening here in rural mid-Tennessee:

• The children (yes, all three) are fast asleep
• Sandra and I are finishing off the Poppy Seed Chicken Leslie kindly made for us
• The night air is balmy and sweet smelling and the stars are out on a dark, clear sky
• The house is cool
• The plunge pool we bought a few days ago is filling up
• We’ve 3 more tubs of Cold Stone ice cream in the freezer which is nearly full of ice now that I’ve found the switch
• We’re all feeling the benefit of finally finding some sunshine this summer
  
• The wireless network is working and emails from the UK are gradually drying up

And the best thing… we’ve got loads more to come, including a trip to the Smoky Mountains next week.

I like moments like this.

S.

Well we’ve been here 7 days now and here’s our top-10 list of things we did over the last week:

1.    Meeting up with so many friends
2.    Taking the family into BBMP
3.    Fellowship Bible Church (Sandra said I hadn’t oversold it, which is amazing because I have gone on about it)
4.    Swimming in Ross’s pool
5.    Completing the golden triad of ice cream outlets (Cold Stone, Marble and Moos)
6.    Henry Horton State Park
7.    Watching the fireflies at the end of the back yard at dusk
8.    Watching Poppy and Moo discover ChuckECheese
9.    A little house hunting (we always end up doing this on holiday)
10.  Finally getting here!!!

We’ve one more week and a long list of stuff to do in Nashville before we head up to the Smoky Mountains. Looking forward to that.

S.

After a couple of days setting up home here (including our first Wall Mart experience) we had a more restful day today, fixing up a pool in the garden, playing with the hose, a snacky lunch full of new things, snoozing after lunch and then out for supper with Ross at ChuckECheese. We were glad he came… we needed the help! Moo went berserk once he discovered the basic ground rules.

Ross introduced me to Pete Kipley who happened to be in there while we were. Great to meet the man behind so many great tracks. I’d love to spend a day in his studio some time.

Tomorrow we’re off to Ross’s pool before the family comes home to snooze. I’ll be going in to BBMP in the afternoon to finish off some urgent work tapes. Looking forward to that.

Barts has been a total star. He just fits in to everything we’re doing and is now sleeping through the night, which gives us so much more energy to encounter all the new stuff here. I had some quality time with him today, watching BBC America while he slept gently in my arms. I love all of his funny baby grunts, stuffles and groans. Apparently I made a few snoring noises as well. Can’t believe that.

S.