The candle of thought

Sitting on a beach after midnight, a stranger plays the guitar and the first word grabs you by the limbic system. The song you used to sing in retrospect, wise beyond your 14 years, every night locked in your room, from a CD that cool guy at school gave you (and if only you were 'in' like him, he could have been your friend). You've been rehearsing for this your whole life. The candle of thought lights up your face. You suddenly remember, yes, before this I was in a band. For two seconds, I was the lead singer in a band, and I forgot. That was seventeen years ago, and the memory of gigs at golf clubs and school halls faded away, through that thick oppressive fog that's been like cobwebs all around you. The Indian Ocean embraces your legs and the Fremantle Doctor caresses you as it whips around you cleanly, blowing everything away. The white sand of the Western Australian shore beneath you, the Southern Cross above you, and all those years behind you. You are held in place so now you are free. An amazing individual in an ordinary lifeline and an extraordinary world. The song returns into your life, and you are finally yourself again, it's a new feeling, a new year. You sing, and you know all the words, and now you know what they mean. A duet with a stranger on the beach amongst friends, some that you have met and some that you will never know.

Today I am grateful for my voice, and all the years of music inside of me that is now resonating with the earth and the people that surround me. I am grateful for the depth of my memories, they can ring out clear as song, as all this fog is lifting. Love to all for a beautiful year. Be grateful, be alive.