Big Yellow Taxi

“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?”

— Joni Mitchell

Late last winter, I came down with a nasty cold that wrecked my vocal cords for months, and I learned not to take my pipes for granted.

A week later, our campus closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and I learned not to take in-person teaching for granted.

Campus reopened briefly in October, but the state ordered my boss to take all the flexible seating out of my classroom and replace it with traditional desks, and I learned not to take my professional autonomy for granted.

I came down with the coronavirus in November, complete with several weeks of brain fog that screwed up my ability to get words out of my brain and onto the page accurately, and I learned not to take my intellect for granted.

The virus also forced me to quarantine, and I learned not to take my pantry and freezer for granted.

In the middle of all that, one of my oldest and dearest friends died, and I learned not to take people I love for granted.

Last night, a colleague and I realized that our usual regional inservice day — which everybody generally hates — will happen online this year, in a scaled-down form, and I learned not to take free doughnuts and coffee and a day of bitching about consultants behind their backs for granted.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been on doctor’s orders not to run again until I can walk three miles without feeling winded. Ramona the Pest and I walked 3.8 miles today, and I feel better than I have at any point since last spring. I did not take that for granted, and I am looking forward to a gentle run later this week.

After a year of loss, I think a good workout is going to feel a lot like slashing the tires on a big yellow taxi.

Emily

Folk Thursday: Joni Mitchell

“Amelia,” from Joni Mitchell’s brilliant Hejira album, is one of my favorite songs — and a nice tribute to a woman who has fascinated me since I was a little girl. I like this stripped-down arrangement. (The version of “Coyote” from this concert is also spectacular; I’ve posted it before.)

Emily

Folk Thursday: Joni Mitchell

I’ve been too busy covering a murder trial this week to blog. Here’s a BBC recording of an entire Joni Mitchell concert from 1970 to make it up to you.

Emily

Folk Thursday: Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter

This cover of “Amelia” is easily the best thing I’ve heard since Judy Collins sang “Diamonds and Rust” with Joan Baez. Joni Mitchell is a hot mess, but daaaaaaaaamn, can that girl write.

If you don’t own Hejira, you really ought to remedy that ASAP. It’s been reissued on vinyl, which is really the best way to hear it. I’m much more tolerant of cold nights when I can curl up in the living room with Hejira on the turntable and drink hot cocoa with extra marshmallows. Which is probably what I’m going to do for the rest of this evening. I’m a little fuzzy around the edges, and I could use a quiet evening in my pajamas.

Emily