Four Strong Winds.... 1 year ago....

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....

Four strong winds....

What a wonderful weekend. Tommy and I travelled to meet each other in the middle, and spent a day and a half hanging out in Palmerston North from Friday evening to early Sunday morning. We explored the market on Saturday and giggled at silly t-shirts ("Dyslexics untie!," "If you can read this, MAKE ME A SANDWICH!," etc.), ate fudge until our stomachs hurt, sang and played his guitar in the park, harmonized to every song we knew in common, took pictures, saw a movie, attempted to write a song together and only got through the first line... and then said farewell at 6am today. The goodbye was certainly bittersweet, as I knew it would be, but we crammed as much into the weekend as we possibly could, and it was worth every second. As I said before in "Growing Up," knowing Tommy has been such a privilege, and he has taught me more about myself in the past month than I could have imagined. Funny how that works.

Here are a couple photographic glimpses of the past 2 days, plus a bonus video clip of our singalong from last night. At about midnight we got his guitar out in the kitchen of our cabin (it ended up being too cold and windy to set up the tent) and sang "Four Strong Winds," one of the most quintessential Canadian folk songs. I taught him a geography lesson (i.e. "Do you know where Alberta is?") and we harmonized until we could barely keep our eyes open. It was musical and meaningful and just plain fun. What a guy.

He's already asked me to show him around Saskatoon when he comes for a visit - maybe we can find a gig somewhere and invite you all to the show. :o) Watch out - we'll be dynamite! Haha.

In front of the fountain in the Square - Palmerston North, NZ

We pulled out the guitar again at a park that was about a 2 minute walk from the theatre, played a few songs, then literally ran to catch our show... because making music is better than watching previews, right? :o)

And finally, our midnight rendition of "Four Strong Winds." It's perfect because it's imperfect. I love it. And I hope you do too.

Four strong winds that blow lonely,
Seven seas that run high,
All these things that don't change, come what may.
If the good times are all gone,
And I'm bound for moving on,
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way.

Growing up

I am finding more and more these days that life is a constantly-evolving thing. We come across people in our lives that have a tremendous impact on us, whether they know it or not. There are the obvious people like my parents, my sister, my family and close friends, etc. whom we all know play a huge role in shaping who I am and how I see the world.... then there are some not-so-obvious people, like this beautiful soul who I have had the pleasure of getting to know here in New Zealand.

He has taught me more even in the last week than I could have possibly fathomed. His passion for music is nothing short of inspiring. Yesterday we took his guitar and plenty of warm clothes down to Oriental Bay in Wellington, where we sat on rocks by the harbour and played music together, harmonizing, laughing, taking pictures of each other, freezing our butts off, and just taking in the beauty of the situation. This has been a brief and bitter-sweet companionship for me, as the circumstances dictate that we must make the most of our time together here and now, as we live half a world apart and are at different places in our lives. I realize that for many of you back home, this is the first you may have heard of all of this; I didn't want to speak too soon about anything because there was never any guarantee that it would go anywhere. As it turns out, while we admire each other immensely on a variety of levels, we realize that logically we can't continue anything past November. Yet, I am choosing to take all of this for the blessing that it has been and continues to be in my life. It's amazing how much of an impact someone who has only known you a short time can have on how you view your world.

I guess this is all just part of growing up..... and for that, it is beautiful. Life never ceases to amaze me. Thank you Tommy.