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Daniel Pettegrew, proprietor, sitting outside his Xetava Gardens. This picture is used as a postcard for the bookstore/cafe.

I performed at the grand opening of Daniel Pettegrew's Xetava Gardens on Saturday, February 26, 2000, a bookstore/cafe located at Kayenta near Ivins, Utah. Daniel is a real artist, and took a lot of special care in creating Xetava, as the pictures below show. He hand-carved the doors he is standing in front of in the above picture, and cabinet doors behind the counter and an inner door shown in the pictures below. Xetava is an extraordinary cafe/ bookstore, as you can see, a warm and inviting place. You could easily spend all day there, reading books, sipping coffee, and listening to good music...

I first heard about Daniel Pettegrew and the place he was building at Kayenta, a unique development located near Ivins, Utah, while at a summer party there in May of 1999. I had all my flutes with me, and the following day I went into Xetava, which he was still building then, and met him. At that time, the walls and ceiling were up, but all the interior had still to be done. I introduced myself, and asked him if he would be having performers play at Xetava and if he would interested in someone playing Native American flute. Well, the place would be a perfect environment for it, and I gave him a little sampling right then.

One thing Daniel has in the center of Xetava are six huge red rock boulders 'fused together' into one. The back side of it had one rock that was situated as a bit of a bench in which people could sit. Another rock right next to it could have been placed the same way, but he told me that for some reason he felt it should not be. As I took out my six flutes and laid them out on it, he told me he just found out the reason why! He loved my playing, and told me he would like me to play at his grand opening, after he gets it all completed. I instantly accepted!

I was there again in December of 1999, performing for the Kayenta Christmas party, and had another opportunity to talk to Daniel at length, and learned something of his other interests, which included some musical projects that he had been thinking about. In discussing them, he had mentioned something he was thinking about involving Schubert's "Ave Maria". I told him I already had the sheet music for it, and was something I was wanting to try to learn to play on the flute. It instantly gave me an incentive to learn it, and in the months that followed, I sat down and managed to learn how to play it. What was interesting was that this was really the very first song I was learning to play from sheet music, and at the time, I did not even know how to read sheet music!

Xetava opened its doors during the St. George, 2000 Utah Parade of Homes, and his grand opening gala would not be until almost the end of it. It was to be a bit of a black tie affair. Other than that, I had no idea what to really expect, so I wanted to be ready for anything. I went down with some equipment I purchased should he want me to hook up to his sound system, along with other items I usually perform with, and a huge Indian drum that I thought my wife might play during part of it, as she has done in other performances. I also got "Ave Maria" ready to play, thinking it would be a suitable thing to play for his grand opening. To do so, however, I would have to get everyone's attention, and I had a little speech prepared to give, should I get the opportunity to do this. I very much wanted to, after having spent so much time learning it.

Well, despite all my preparations, the night was very different from what I was thinking it would be like, but in no way was I disappointed. The evening was perfect, but it was all the little things that I could not foresee that really made the night special for me, and the lessons I learned because of them.

The evening belonged to Daniel Pettegrew and his Xetava Gardens. Not to me. I played with no sound system at all, for a couple hours at both the beginning and end of the night. Another couple, playing guitar and cello, with a sound system, playing during the noisiest part of the night, giving me a chance to mingle and talk with guests. During the night, I made a couple more connections with people who play the Native American flute, and learned of something that may or may not have some significance for me down the road. I did play "Ave Maria", but it was not until the very end, and more just for Daniel than any of the few others that were still present when I played it.

The most important thing thing that happened to me during the course of the night was connections that both my wife and I made with some Native Americans from the Shivwits Indian Reservation located next to Kayenta. They enjoyed my flute playing, and I will probably end up doing a flute demonstration for them on their reservation. I am looking very forward to doing this later in the summer.

Despite the appearance that perhaps ego was getting in the way of this performance, I don't think it was. It was an important performance for me, personally. My preparations and desires to play well, however, was more just to ensure I was really ready for this, and anticipatory of whatever may have been required to make it go well.

It would be tempting of me to say that several seeds were planted on this evening. As I thought about it, however, I thought that to state it so would make it seem I was attempting to plant an orchard, or create some beautiful landscape. The idea of planting something like an orchard seemed to centered on the idea of making money, and the beautiful landscape would be something pleasing to eye, perhaps, but would be devoid a natural beauty, such as a field of columbines stretching out over a mountain slope.

So I tend to look at it more that seeds were not planted, but rather, scattered, carried off by the wind. Some would land in a fertile place, perhaps be covered over by a layer of leaves, and would take root and grow. Others, however, might land in a very rocky place, and not be able to take root. It would not mean, however, that they would not serve some purpose somehow. It just meant it would not be as evident what its affect might be. A bird might find it, and use it to feed its youngsters. Even just laying there and decaying, it could become food for other smaller creatures, perhaps even microscopic organisms. Its affect then, would not be noticeable at all, but still, it would have some affect in the larger scheme of things.

It made me more aware of my place in the universe. My contributions to this world may only be a very small part. Maybe it would just be a single rock rolling off a small cliff that over the eons of time could erode into something like the Grand Canyon. It is quite something, however, to think that you could have a personal part in something that awesome...

In Beauty,

Scott Francis

A Few More Pictures of Xetava Gardens