Meet The Author

By
Raised in a small town in west-central Minnesota, Pearl Haining fell in love with traditional American values and simple living at an early age. She appreciates the value of things commonly referred to as "old fashioned", such as loyalty, respect, kindness, and grammatically correct sentence structure.

After a childhood illness left Pearl partially disabled, she began playing harmonica as a form of therapy. Harmonica eventually became her profession as she, and her three, multi-instrumentalist siblings, formed a band and began performing with their parents throughout Minnesota. The Haining Family has since traveled coast-to-coast performing throughout the United States. In 2011, Pearl and her family relocated to Branson, Missouri.

Learning to live with physical handicaps has taught Pearl the importance of not taking life for granted, and finding joy in simple pleasures. Her hobbies include: reading, writing, drinking coffee, fishing, drinking coffee, making and/or enjoying great music, and drinking coffee.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Read These Top 5 Pearlspectives:

It's Just Time To Quit

By
Image
I t seems like an unspoken rule that the first post a blogger publishes in a new year should be goal focused and extremely motivational. I'm not usually a rule breaker but I'm really not feeling very motivational (a possible factor in the lateness of this "New Year's" post). Photo by Isaac Holmgren on Unsplash Honestly folks, I'm ready to quit. Maybe I'm stressed. Maybe I'm tired. Maybe it's just time for a change. Maybe it's different every day, but everyone has their limit and I've reached mine. Like so many people do, I've tried setting goals and tried my best to achieve them, but my best never seems to be enough. The things I accomplish bring little satisfaction and I always feel like I should have done more, but if I set bigger goals then I'll only increase my stress and my chances of failure. I can't take it anymore and it's just time to quit. After all, it's better to quit than to fail, right? WR
Read more

Why I Stopped Calling Depression A Choice

By
Image
A s an entertainer, my job is to give people a reason to smile. Many of the songs I sing are to help my audience either forget their struggles or find new courage to face them, and any emotion I feel or convey from the stage is dictated by that principle. If only emotions were that predictable off stage. I grew up hearing cliches like "life is what you make it" and "happiness is a choice", and I guess I just assumed that was true. I still think it is - to a degree - but not every emotion can be called a choice. I know better than that now, and so does anyone else who's struggled with depression. I know what you're thinking: "What do you know about depression, Pearl? You're one of the funniest people I know. Do you even know how to not smile?" Well shucks, thanks for complimenting my sense of humor! But yes, I have actually experienced very smile-less depression, and more than once. I never woke up one day and said "I think I'll
Read more

Getting Pearlsonal - How the Harmonica Changed My Life

By
Image
I've never really told this story before, but I think it's time... As an entertainer, I've seen music touch many people, some who don't understand the language being sung, and I've even seen deaf people respond to the joy of music! But music touched me - physically , not just emotionally - long before I started sharing it with others. Yeah, I know. "Physically?? What does that even mean?" Well, it's like this: The harmonica changed my life - maybe even saved it. But I never wanted to play it or asked Santa to bring me one. In fact, about the time I started playing harmonica, it was maybe the last thing on my mind. Why? Because as an 8 year old kid, for no officially diagnosed reason, I had gone from outrunning teenage boys to being so weak that I couldn't walk, stand, or even sit up. I couldn't do much of anything, and honestly, I didn't even care anymore. I was giving up. One day my mom came home from the store, said "look
Read more

A Life Worth Living

By
Image
O n this day in tomorrow's history, a new blog appeared on the Internet. I am starting this blog for a very important reason: I want to! You see, I am addicted to thinking and when I think, I write. A blog gives me bit more space to write, making it easier to communicate a thought or idea more thoroughly. Image by Thought Catalog via Unsplash What will I be writing about? Life. My life, mostly, and the things I learn from living it. Being a traveling musician, a southerner who grew up in Minnesota, and a young American, gives me a wide variety of experiences to write about; but for starters, there are two basic things about life that I'd like to point out: 1. It's not easy. 2. It's worth living! That first point is probably rather obvious to most of us, but I didn't always believe that second point. In fact, for a while I believed exactly the opposite. That was many years ago after a childhood illness had left me with physical handicaps. At that ti
Read more

Remembering Grandma, and the Longest Day of My Life (That Was Worth Every Minute)

By
Image
I can remember it like it was yesterday but yet it's somewhat of a blur. It started on October 11th, 2015. We were relaxing in an Oklahoma hotel room on a Sunday afternoon, and some of us were going to take a short nap before going to set up for our show that evening, but the phone rang before any of us could fall asleep. The call was from a friend in Minnesota who had gone to visit my grandparents that day. Grandma had been quite ill for a while, but we thought she was on the mend. Our friend, who had a background as a hospice nurse, could see otherwise. "How soon can you get here?", she asked my mom. "I know performing is your livelihood, and I feel sick telling you to cancel a show, but I'd feel worse if I didn't. The time it takes to do the concert might be all the time you'd have to say goodbye." So, we canceled our show and left the hotel as fast as we could pack. We got in the van and headed north. We stopped after a few hour
Read more