Exactly one year ago today, I sat in the kitchen of a little cabin in Palmerston North, New Zealand with the wonderful Tommy P, strumming and singing and recording us singing "Four Strong Winds" at midnight on the little Mac computer that I had borrowed from Hutt Valley High School.... October 27th, 2007 (I know the date of this post will read Oct. 26th but it's the 27th in NZ so that's what I'm going by). What I felt in that moment were simply feelings of contentment and pleasure over the fact that we were recording ourselves singing in harmony. It wasn't until later that I realized how poignant the lyrics of the song were, and just how much that recording would mean to me after I left New Zealand.
So, it has been exactly a year since I saw Tommy for the last time. I've thought of him probably every day since, and I've watched that video more times than I can count. Tommy and keep in touch very regularly, and have plans to meet up again in a year and a half, back on that side of the world again.... and you can bet that there will be an updated recording or two, or twenty. We will have new places to see, new songs to sing, and new memories to create. But for today, on this one-year anniversary of the day we had to say goodbye, I am paying my respects to one particularly bitter-sweet memory from a beautiful day in my past.
Kei te aroha au i a koe, Tommy. And I WILL look for you when I'm back your way....
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