‘Twas the week before a very special solstice ceremony when I first played the chord sequence of this piece, a melody was hummed and I think a few words formed, but nothing stuck straight away.

I have been blessed to have nearly all the songs kind of fall out of me, lightning strikes between music and word, and they coalesce quite quickly into a start-to-finish playable form. When that doesn’t happen, I shrug and move on, and whatever poked it’s head through the door, shrugs and wanders off to take up residence in the ‘cool ideas’ room, perhaps never to be heard from again… 

Jog shuttle forward a week and now I am third-eye deep in ceremony with a circle of maybe 11 people. I have just popped through from an intense purge process and am floating on a bliss cloud of gratitude and love. I feel the call of the guitar and reach for it with no idea of what I am going to play. I put the capo on 3rd fret, coz that’s where I have been exploring for a while now, my fingers land on Dm and the seemingly discarded chord sequence begins, it is that song!

I breathe into it, happy to play the chords, channelling my feelings of love and thanks out through the guitar. Karen, who is lying on her mat beside me, makes a gentle sound as she rolls over to face me. I look down upon her magic and my cloud rockets into the cosmos. 

Suddenly, to my joyous amazement, words begin to flow from my mouth. The words—of this song. As simple as the message is, this was more than making it up on the fly; it came out as if already written and I was reading it.

After the first chorus, movement in the room draws my attention up and into the room. I fall into the powerful vortex of energy coming off all these amazing, courageous people deep in their healing journeys. I throw back my head and I sing to them all. 

This is why the first chorus is—thank you, my love—for Karen, and the second is—thank you, my loves—to the room, the last chorus is out to everyone everywhere, living their lives, having their experiences, doing their best with all that they are.

 Between you and me, we are all life.