By Catherine Austin Fitts

I stopped in Moscow, Idaho this weekend on my way to Portland Oregon. Moscow is the home of the University of Idaho, in an area known as the Palouse.

I was visiting with John Rubino, proprietor of DollarCollapse.com and his amazing wife April Rubino, proprietor of Integrative Mindworks.

On Saturday night we attended a “Spring Fever” concert at the
Kenworthy Performing Arts Center and enjoyed an incredible selection of local artists
helping to raise funds to fund a new digital camera so movies could continue in their local theatre. One of the groups was a talented young bluegrass group that I expect to hear more from, Thorn Creek Express:

Then on Sunday morning, we attended church service at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse. After hymns and poetry, the service was a “Sermon in Song” filled with more artists, singers and musicians and a wonderful church choir. Several poems were from Wendall Barry, including this one:

The Peace of Wild Things

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

— Wendell Berry

Taking off after church, I stopped at the amazing Moscow food coop – we all dream of living in a place that has such fabulous fresh food at reasonable prices.

I then headed off across the Palouse on a beautiful sunny day nourished by the songs of so many talented musicians and a community rich with giving, caring people.