Piano, guitar, cool ear candy, & thoughtful lyrics about love, blood, baseball, sadness, pear trees & Patron, and more. They are about me & you, our humanity. They are meant to speak to the universal by being personal, a feature of a new genre of music to which this belongs -- contemplative rock.

Our youngest son, Rumi, was diagnosed with leukemia on July 30, 2008. This “good” form of cancer involves great suffering. It’s impossible to express the gratitude due for the sanity-saving generosity of our family, friends, & community. A list of people’s initials & gifts (from life-saving medicine to life-giving companionship, food to laundry, “Curious George Meets Rumi” book & DVDs to signed hockey jerseys, blood to food, emotional to financial support, massage to childcare, from bulb-planting to website-organizing, weeklong visits to snack & card faeries, from flexibility at work to companions for our children’s play) ran off the page. Our interdependence is truly endless. One profound gift comes in the form of people who are able to provide true company, not strained cheer. My community gives me hope that we humans have the capacity to face unpleasant reality, see our global problems from a wider frame, prevent (not cure) suffering (of all kinds), & encourage sustainable well-being for ourselves, our community, & our planet. Donal is a musician, psychologist, & contemplative practitioner living in Madison, WI