JUST ANOTHER MUSIC MONDAY: FIRE & RAIN

Well hello...

I've got so much I've got to tell you. A whole lot of blog posts just stock piling in the noggin, but not much time, or gumption to let them find their way out. I will spare you the blah blah blah about how 2012 was really hard, and how 2013 was all about starting over and going to be the most triumphant year ever...  and then there was the flooding of the kitchen, a flat tire on the way back to California, a traumatic trip to the ER with a monster of a kidney stone, the cold and the hacking cough, the flu and all it's goobers and snot (sorry, keep reading, it get's better), and now the Loo has had four scary days of fevers over 104 and a double dose of ear infections. I know, "cry me a river", "could be worse", "so much to be grateful for", but it seems to be one thing after another for many many moons now... 

That all being said, there seems to be silver linings all along the way, or maybe I just have to believe that, and be that kind of girl, the kind that always must find a reason, a lesson and wrap the crap up in a beautiful bow. But hey, it's only February, I'm still holding out hope, there is still time! Surely there is something to be learned from trial and pain... I think. No, I know...

Gosh I hope I'm learning. 

And yet amongst the darkness and shadow is this incredible beaming light that shines through... that light being my lil' London June. She sparkles so brightly, illuminating our path and truly showing us the way. She makes even the crappiest days seem simultaneously the happiest. Thank the good Lord for a baby.

Like I told you, so many blog posts. I'd love to give them a life eventually... 

Honestly, I'd really like to spend more time here, on the blog, writing about things that matter. Because I've recently come to a strong realization, perhaps even a revelation; and seeing as I've been writing songs for nearly a decade now, it may seem obvious, but... may I be so bold to declare, I am a writer. And when I say that, I don't mean, I'm a Grammar technician (you've probably gathered that with all my run on sentences and dot dot dots), a novelist or a poet. But I have stories to tell, a lot of them. Hmmm, On second thought, maybe scratch the "writer" bit, and may I exchange that title for that of,  a story teller. A teller of true stories for the most part, and therein lies the problem, or challenge. I suppose I have held off writing many of these stories because I am trying to sort out my boundaries, what to say and how to say it and why I'm saying it, and what I will keep locked up in the sacred chamber. Which stories are mine to tell, and which stories also belong to the characters with in it, and they are more then mere characters, but real people, who I feel necessary to respect and protect. However, as one who is constantly striving and or tortured with being a perpetuator of truth, I yearn to give my most authentic self, and paint a picture of an honest life, with all it's roses and thorns. But like unto my great social media addiction, Instagram, sometimes we must put a filter on it. 

So until I've got it all that serious shtuff figured out, I thought I'd simply sing you songs. One of those posts will be about the music, and where it is going... I don't have that answer yet. But I have music, it is still rushing through my veins like blood. It sustains me and keeps me alive. And I've got an iphone camera...

Every Monday I am going to post a song here on the blog, and it shall be called "JUST ANOTHER MUSIC MONDAY". Sometimes it will be an original, something I'm working on, and sometimes it will be something someone else has written, or something that is tried and true. There may even be some guests joining me. Today, I am playing for you "fire and rain", a song by one of my most beloved artists, James Taylor. His humble voice is like a warm blanket, a dear friend, offering me comfort and sustenance along the journey.

Just a few days into the new year, I had the rare experience of taking a shower by myself. Now allow me to explain, I usually put my big baby girl in her tiny tub and stick her in the shower with me and that is how I manage to keep the both of us clean. But one evening Dave the dad suggested she watch the game with him while I shower solo. I set up my ipod doc and plugged in my old iphone. There wasn't a hesitation about what to listen to. I scrolled down to the J's and landed on my trusty 'ol JT. Greatest Hit's number one would be my selection. As I stood in the shower and let the hot water hit my tired head that housed my burnt out brain, I just stood there as the first few picks on the guitar of "Something in the way she moved" played and eased every last uneasy part of me and stressful thought. I sang along with my eyes closed. I didn't wash my hair, or shave my legs, I just stood there and sang every song from something in the way she moves to steam roller blues. But it was during "Fire and Rain" that I sang out from the depths, tearfully and loudly, as if I owned it, as if I wrote it, as if it was my story. In that moment, Fire and Rain was there for me in a way that almost nothing or no one could be. The moment was a gift from God. I know James Taylor paid a high price for fire and rain, but how grateful I was, how grateful I am, to him for paying it. 

And with that, I give you a much humbler version, at the piano, not in the shower. Please forgive my super elementary editing skills,  this video has got beginner written all over it, with format issues galore, couldn't figure out how to fix it, but nonetheless I feel like I'm gonna show it to you anyway :)