Dear Friends:

With this newsletter starts our second year of sending Heartsong news to subscribers, so thanks for reading and welcome to new subscribers!

It's been warm and pleasant here in sunny California and I'm sure many of you in the colder climes are looking forward to a lovely and warm spring.

On March 8, the world community celebrates International Working Women's Day. In honor of that celebration, this issue is dedicated to our daughter, Deborah Marie Kurrasch Orbaugh, because I believe she personifies the challenges of women today as they struggle for equity in the work place while raising a family.

Contents:

1. International Working Women's Day and Women's History Month
2. Would you like an original ring tone on your cell phone?
3. Refreshing Rain News
4. Other News and Comments

International Women's Day is March 8 and is celebrated by women's groups around the world. It is commemorated at the United Nations, and in many countries it is designated as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

It is a centuries-old struggle of ordinary women trying to establish an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

The idea for such a day came about at the turn of the twentieth century, a time in which the industrialized world was in a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies.

In the United States, the day was eventually expanded to become National Women's History Month. But first it was initiated as Women's History Week in 1978 in Sonoma County, California in response to the fact that women's history was an unknown topic in schools and in the general public. The task force on the Status of Women secured a Congressional Resolution declaring the week's celebration in 1981. Word spread rapidly across the nation and state departments of education and appropriate curriculum was developed for use in the classrooms. In 1987, Congress was petitioned to expand the national celebration to the entire month of March, which it did. The growing interest in women's history has sparked an uncovering of women's forgotten heritage, preserving sites of importance to American women's history and serving as a springboard to celebrate women's history all year round.

From: National Women's History Project and The United Nations

The following original pieces were written by me specifically in support of women and/or issues of equality. For a copy of the words and/or music, contact me.

Do you have a cell phone that can download various ring tones? Our son, Peter, came up with the idea that Heartsong could enter the ring tone market by providing original ring tones for these new cell phones, those that can download a MIDI file that plays an actual melody instead of the standard ring tone. As Peter says, "why have an annoying 'chirp chirp' when you can have a soothing 'ahhh, you're public desires contact with you' instead!"

So, I am now offering a special March-only offer of an original ring tone for your phone at the low price of $1.99, which is almost 50% less than the standard charge. Contact me to discuss what you would like before the price goes up.

My CD, Refreshing Rain, is now available at BestBuy.com. Just type in my full name and there you are! Best Buy launched the CD Baby catalog in November, which now gives Best Buy shoppers access to the largest online library of independent music.

I have appreciated the response to my CD and have learned that it is being appreciated by people across the entire age spectrum: to soothe young babies to sleep, for meditation and relaxation by those of us stressed by today's world; and to calm the anxieties of dementia patients.

If you know anyone that needs such soothing and calming, please visit CDBaby and buy them a copy. If you go to my site at CD Baby, you can hear samples of most of the 15 songs of Refreshing Rain.

I have been gratified by your responses to my newsletter and will start publishing any responses that would be interesting to others, so please keep responding!

One reader informed me of the following omission in my August, 2005 newsletter:

Susan Nigro has published my first commissioned piece, "Ponderings from the Pond," on her CD "New Tunes for the Big Bassoon," on Crystal Records. If you enjoy the wonderful deep sounds of the contra and would like a copy, please go to their site at www.crystalrecords.com.

As more and more people consider retirement living and as more people find themselves sandwiched between young children and aging parents, Senior Activities become important. Don't forget to visit the online site, Activity Connection. You may want to join, for a very nominal fee, and then you can go to my entry, "Music Matters", and see the musical activities I contribute monthly, and well as the plethora of other activities Activity Connection provides.

Shalom and Ciao,
Ann Marie