Becky Reyes: Blog

Well, next week is Thanksgiving. As I live in a near-constant state of bliss these days, I also live in a near-constant state of gratitude. The only time I ever remember being this happy was when I was living alone in a little cabin in western New York in a little burg named Prattsburgh. I was just 30 and truly living by myself for the first time. I only spent 3 1/2 years at that little cabin but in those 3 1/2 years, I grew up. I didn't have a TV or even radio so I read - voraciously. I hiked around the cabin and with my trusty Peterson Guides, identified all the plants and trees in my area and learned how to harvest medicinal plants and use them practically as I made my own salves and tinctures to great success.

The little cabin hasn't changed much. My friend Lisa Bigwood took these pictures for me last year. Oh, the roof is different. It used to be a split-shingle roof that nearly sang when it rained (the shingles were of different sizes and so each had it's own tone), but as I see these pictures, I realize that the cabin is the same. Still isolated, yet inviting. I always remember my little cabin and the life I had there. The cabin even made it's way into my songs Hollywood Sign, Coffee Houses and The Winter Man. I left the frenzy that is Los Angeles and moved to this little cabin and found in myself a real nature girl. I buckled down and learned how to play guitar at that cabin (told ya I was a late bloomer). I met Lisa Bigwood during that time as we both started out on our paths as singer/songwriters.

Now, 20 years from that little cabin, I find myself still living in the country on a little farm in Palominas just outside of Bisbee, still identifying and studying medicinal plants, still playing music and occasionally writing, still - in some small ways - living in that little cabin, and once again filled with gratitude. I am so lucky and so happy to be alive.