Stillpoint: Reflections From A Year On The Cliff

By Barrett Martin

Stillpoint: Reflections From A Year On The Cliff is the third book of short stories from Grammy-winning producer and award-winning writer, Barrett Martin. Building on his previous books, The Singing Earth (2017) and The Way Of The Zen Cowboy (2019), Martin delivers Stillpoint, a c

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sunyata Books
• Release date: Oct 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087989891

Barrett Martin

Barrett Martin is a Grammy-winning producerwho recorded and toured with the Screaming Trees for over a decade. He holds a master's degree in ethnomusicology and linguistics and has written four books about music and culture around the world, as well as several short stories that have been published in magazines and as album liner notes. His work as a producer, drummer, percussionist, and composer can be heard on over 150 albums, including several film and television soundtracks. His ethnomusicology work has taken him to six continents and numerous countries, winning Latin Grammys and writing awards along the way. When he's not traveling, he lives in Olympia, Washington with his wife, Dr. Lisette Garcia, where they oversee a recording studio and a music and film production company.

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Copyright © 2021 by Barrett Martin

All rights reserved

For information about permissions to reproduce selections from this book, translation rights, or to order bulk purchases, go to www.SunyataBooks.com.

Editing and sunset cover photo by Lisette Garcia

Author photo by Tad Fettig

Book design by Bryan Tomasovich at The Publishing World

Martin, Barrett

Stillpoint: Reflections From A Year On The Cliff

978-1-0878-6765-6

ISBN: 978-1-0879-8989-1 (e-book)

1. BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Composers & Musicians 2. PHILOSOPHY / Zen

Printed in the U.S.A.

Distributed by Ingram

A free download of the Stillpoint album soundtrack is available at:

www.BarrettMartin.com/Stillpoint

WWW.SUNYATABOOKS.COM

A FREE DOWNLOAD

OF THE STILLPOINT ALBUM SOUNDTRACK IS AVAILABLE AT:

WWW.BARRETTMARTIN.COM/STILLPOINT

Stillpoint

A Year On The Cliff

The Roaring Sea

Muddy Waters

A Spiritual Hearing Aid For The Soul

Rain Dance

True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes

A Musical Instrument For Battle

The Drummer That Wasn’t

It’s Electric!

Northern Lights

Giant Black Shark Fin Of Death

The Holy Cleaners

Fire Ceremony

Food Trilogy

Part I: Origins

Part II: The Food Bank Drive

Part III: The Immigrants Who Pick Our Food

Searching For A Home In A Pandemic

Everything Is Borrowed

Stillpoint is the moment between thoughts, when all mental chatter ceases and the awareness of absolute, eternal mind emerges from within. It can last seconds, and if you’re very still, several minutes. This clear mind state can be obtained through deep meditation, but I’ve also found that gazing at the sea can foster this same mental clarity. The stories and music contained in this book are the result of a magical year of reflection, and the realizations that emerged from within.

A Year On The Cliff

This is a collection of short stories, written over the course of a single calendar year, when my wife and I rented a house on a steep sea cliff inside an animal sanctuary, a few hundred feet above the majestic Strait of Juan de Fuca. It’s a famous body of water that separates Washington State from British Columbia, our Canadian neighbor to the north, and we locals call this general area Cascadia. It is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

We consciously made the move to this house so we could retreat from our former life and go internal to seek spiritual and artistic inspiration. It was also a way to reconnect with the forest and the wildlife that surrounds this place, which also happens to be the region where I grew up. The book you’re holding in your hands, as well as my wife’s first book, (Poderosas by Dr. Lisette Garcia), plus a few other albums worth of music were created in that sacred space. Other things, which were perhaps more internal and spiritual, came to fruition as well.

Then again, what is more spiritual than to live in the natural, wild world? That is the true face of God—Nature, and it is the most powerful force on the planet. We are all subservient to it in one form or another, and as human beings, we are given an incredible opportunity to exist with the animals and other spirits that inhabit this material realm.

Living on the cliff turned out to be a perfect metaphor for the year that began in 2019 and concluded near the end of 2020, as the world was convulsed by pathogens that were both biological and political. The Coronavirus pandemic ravaged the global population, at the same time that various forms of political chaos engulfed the United States and other parts of the world. The parallels between Nature and human society are astoundingly similar when you look closely.

As global scientists were assessing the danger of the virus and the growing climate crisis, we also saw the emergence of right wing and left wing extremism. Unfortunately, when people become fearful and radicalized in their beliefs, ignorance is the usual culprit, with violence following in its aftermath.

After a year of clashes, it became clear that neither side of the extreme left-right continuum was particularly capable or even awake. Meanwhile, the more rational minds in the middle watched with a combination of horror and disbelief as our country was divided into separate political fiefdoms. Add to this the disinformation created by social media and conspiracy theories, and the nation became a pressure cooker that seemed ready to explode at any moment. After two centuries of Americanness where we had previously embraced all sides from the middle, civility was cast to the wind, replaced with finger pointing, name calling, and outright murder. Basic civility and municipal governance seemed like an afterthought, or as Will Rogers foretold it nearly a hundred years earlier, Common sense just ain’t common.

As the extremists battled, the global environmental crisis continued to grow exponentially, yet continued to be ignored. It went from being a discussion about the existence of climate change, to a full-blown climate crisis unfolding in real time. Soaring temperatures caused horrific wildfires in the world’s ancient forests, and the Arctic ice sheets melted faster than snow cones at the county fair—except the county fairs were canceled too, the result of an unstoppable virus.

When the nation’s economy slipped to its lowest depths, so too did the moral character of the far right, who clung to false narratives and crumbling power structures, as they jabbered away with hate-invoking rhetoric. The leftists, for their part, managed to squander whatever remained of their agenda by smashing windows in small businesses, burning police cars, and covering cities in graffiti. Both sides espoused various social theories that were wildly incorrect, so that anyone with a progressive mind was now labeled a Marxist, and anyone who leaned conservative was labeled a racist. Ignorance and intolerance reigned supreme.

What I noticed most tellingly, was the inability of both sides to maintain the philosopher’s mind of Aristotle. That is to say, the ability to hold two opposing points of view, while still considering other possibilities and viewpoints. Extremists are entirely unable to do any of this, thus the credibility they so desperately crave is ultimately destroyed.

The American flag lay in tatters, because the white supremacists had wrapped themselves in it, thereby staining it, and this gave the leftists a symbol to burn and otherwise disrespect. Ironically, these opposing forces seemed to have more in common with each other than the rest of us watching from the sidelines. Our beautiful flag, which had previously been a symbol of national unity and a beacon for human rights around the world was now at it’s lowest point, at least in my lifetime.

A personal experience with this very subject was when I hired a helper to move a couch that wouldn’t fit in my mini van. He arrived driving a gigantic monster truck with huge American flags permanently affixed to the rear bumper. It was exactly the same look that the right wing had employed when they rallied in convoys during the last presidential election, tainting the flag with hatred and intimidation. I was horrified, but my helper was young and didn’t really understand the symbolism of what he had assembled—plus I really needed to move that couch. I climbed aboard. We were immediately flipped off and booed by every other car we passed, as we drove through the streets of our small town, and that’s when I knew the semiotics of the American flag had been truly damaged. We have to find a way to reclaim its honor.

The ensuing economic collapse had given our nation an opportunity to come together to defeat both the political divisions of the previous four years, as well as the virus. The problem was that the nation lacked any true leadership to show us the way. 2020 could have been one of the greatest periods in American history, instead, it was one of our worst.

With all the chaos and unraveling that was happening in our country, my wife and I chose to retreat and live simply and humbly in our little house on the cliff, surrounded by an animal sanctuary and mountains on one side, and the ocean and setting Sun on the other.

After decades of living in cities up and down the west coast, and a few cities on the east coast, living in the forest as I did as a youth was one of the greatest gifts of my adult life. Not only was I able to write and record the stories and music contained in this book, but I also found a certain peace with the natural world that I hadn’t experienced since childhood—a peace that came from the Stillpoint in my Zen practice. I began to understand how Nature is always reflecting society, and even our very minds. I hope that as you read and listen to these stories and songs, the imagery they evoke will be close to what I experienced, and in some cases, remembered from decades long since past.

These stories are based on real life, both in the present and the past, and some stride into