May the Fourth Be with You

Hey, guys! We have been busy, busy, busy lately, and we're excited for the chance to catch up and share with you all! It looks like spring has officially sprung, which is great for anyone who likes warm weather; as for us, we're already missing the cold! 

We have spent the past month preparing and rehearsing for the Lewis & Rauleron's 75th Anniversary Celebration. In spite of the scattered rainstorms (read: torrential downpour), we had an absolute blast, and if the show was any indication of how the rest of the month is going to go (we seriously hope it is!), then it looks like May will be great. As always, we'd like to give a massive thank you to our friend, co-conspirator, jack-of-all-trades, and guitarist, Frank Sikes, for practicing and putting up with us once again, and for letting us use his (extremely flammable) practice space, complete with goats, chickens, and cardboard cut out of Han Solo. We've never cuddled a chicken before (or sang with a goat judging us), but thanks to his miniature farm, we truly understand that the love of a bird is like no love we've ever had before, and that goats are truly judgmental creatures.

But before we start chasing a rabbit - well, a chicken - let's get back to the Anniversary Celebration. We really had a blast performing with Frank, and we are extremely grateful to Randall Broadhead and his crew from Sound Experiencing for running sound for us through a few thunderstorms. Not very many people can say that they spent their first few shows singing along with trains, but that's the fun part of living in a railroad town! Although it rained all afternoon, it certainly didn't dampen the appetites, as everyone enjoyed Coca-Cola's very own Mr. Terry Murray's famous chicken and sausage dogs, and lucky for us, he managed to save us a few drumsticks before everyone cleaned him out. We also were able to get up close and personal with the Shell-Pennzoil NASCAR race car and a Ferrari Indy car, which we were very tempted to "borrow" for a quick spin around the block. But alas, our efforts were in vain, and we were forced to admire it from as close as we could get for the rest of the day. There were two monster trucks as well, and we've yet to figure out how anyone gets inside them. We're determined to find out, and maybe try it for ourselves one day. 

Despite a few minor mishaps (including a very angry god of thunder who held up our sound check!), it was a day that we enjoyed immensely, and we always seem to learn a little bit more about patience, the importance of practice, and how necessary it is to be able to laugh at ourselves every time we perform. The rain could have sent us into a tailspin, but we've always had a particular taste for dancing in the rain, and the delays gave us the chance to meet everybody who came out to celebrate such an awesome time for a company we think of so highly because of the importance they place on family, community, and integrity in business.

Events like Lewis & Raulerson's 75th Anniversary Celebration give us the chance to talk about our OneHeart Project, through which we continually strive to increase awareness of poverty and need in our area. We will be placing another order for OneHeart t-shirts, which you can purchase by contacting us via Facebook or Twitter, calling or texting Allison Turner at 912 - 288 - 4048, or tracking one of us down in person. In the weeks ahead, we will be throwing a Beau + Luci Day at Waycross's very own Salon Cheveux, to rally together our friends and family in order to makes steps toward eradicating the poverty experienced by children and families in our area. We're extremely excited about Beau + Luci Day, and details will be posted as the time draws nearer, so make sure to check back and join us! For more information, or just to stop by and say hello, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, check out our website and share us with your friends so we can get the word out! Also, we would love if you would join us every Monday from 7 - 10 PM on the Pat Stone Radio Show chat room for good music and conversation, and to hear any exciting announcements firsthand. We hope to see you there, and thank you all so much for the love you send our way! We appreciate every single one of you more than you will ever know, because you are helping us change lives while making our dreams come true. 

Lots of love, 

Beau + Luci

Can't

Can't is the worst word that's written or spoken;
Doing more harm here than slander and lies;
On it is many a strong spirit broken,
And with it many a good purpose dies.
It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning
And robs us of courage we need through the day:
It rings in our ears like a timely-sent warning
And laughs when we falter and fall by the way.

Can't is the father of feeble endeavor,
The parent of terror and half-hearted work;
It weakens the efforts of artisans clever,
And makes of the toiler an indolent shirk.
It poisons the soul of the man with a vision,
It stifles in infancy many a plan;
It greets honest toiling with open derision
And mocks at the hopes and the dreams of a man.

Can't is a word none should speak without blushing;
To utter it should be a symbol of shame;
Ambition and courage it daily is crushing;
It blights a man's purpose and shortens his aim.
Despise it with all of your hatred of error;
Refuse it the lodgment it seeks in your brain;
Arm against it as a creature of terror,
And all that you dream of you some day shall gain.


Can't is the word that is foe to ambition,
An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;
Its prey is forever the man with a mission
And bows but to courage and patience and skill.
Hate it, with hatred that's deep and undying,
For once it is welcomed 'twill break any man;
Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying
And answer this demon by saying: "I can."

-Edgar Guest

May we always remember we are capable of anything. Nothing is impossible for the hopers and dreamers who are crazy enough to believe their far-flung hopes and improbable dreams can come true. Go out and be brilliant.

Xx, L.

The Pale Blue Dot

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot," but it is one of those unassuming works of art that leave you breathless and covered in goosebumps. I first came across it in a Creative Writing class, in our section on media and videogaphy, and my initial reaction was, "Ugh. Videos. I hate videos. I want to read." About ten seconds in, I was interested. By the time the video ended, I was on the edge of my seat and filled with such pride and love for our pale blue dot that I watched it again. We all know the Earth is our home. I mean, duh. Toddlers know that. First graders definitely know it. To most of us, the Earth is the largest object we will ever personally know. It's where we live and eat and sleep and raise our families. It's where we were born and where we will die. It's where we laugh and cry, and serves as the great stage upon which the grand drama of the human race is played. All the heroes, all the villains, all of us as are "but dust and shadows," and we live upon a "mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." What a spectacular world.

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

-Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space