Down By The Pier

Little sweetheart, I remember waking  up with you one morning there in our little room in the cottage and deciding to set out on a long walk heading toward the end of the peninsula.

We started out that way and once we were a good ways beyond the village turning instead toward Bantry Bay and the pier at Doneen. The surrounding area there is lush and green and there was also a curious and sightly dangerous blowhole that dropped to the water below, a protective fence around it.

A longer walk would take us to the cliffs and as we set out, that little Jack Russell pup came flying seemingly out of nowhere to run just a little ways ahead of us almost the rest of the day.

This picture of you and I is from all the way down by the water. How complete you made me, little sweetheart. The other half of my soul. Love you forever.

Emerald

Little sweetheart, here's another photo of you in that beautiful meadow just beyond the cottage from our first day in Ireland.

It's been on my mind because it's also going to be the first photo inside the gatefold of the new album, Til Morning Is Nigh. The inscription, the dedication reads:

"For Summer, with love forever. A thousand angels watch, bless and keep you."

Indeed, I know they do, as you do me, as you watch and keep me and all of us who love and miss you and strengthen our faith that we will be with you again, soon and forever.

Til Morning

Little sweetheart, the new album, our 8th, TIL MORNING IS NIGH, is approved for digital distribution and the CDs are in production. The official release is next month on November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, and a special preview and pre-sale of the album begins on your birthday, November 13th.

As ever, it is entirely of, for and about you. Your vocals, both sung and spoken, are at its center, and when one opens the gatefold there is a beautiful picture of you standing in a meadow in Ireland, with these words in dedication:

"For Summer, with love forever. A thousand divine angels watch, bless and keep you."

Indeed, my little sweetheart. Love you forever.

At The Edge of The World

One of the days, little sweetheart, that we were in Ireland, we got in the rental car and Kris drove us all out to the end of the Beara peninsula.

We were staying in Kilcrohane which is at the end of the lower, actually middle, of the three peninsulas, the Sheep's Head. The Beara is a bit more wild and rugged geographically at at its very edge is a trolley that goes to tiny Dursey Island. It's the westernmost point in Europe.

There's a little signpost there, with signs pointing in various directions and telling you how many miles or kilometers away various places are from that spot. One is for New York (3000 some miles, with a little swimmer icon), another for Tir na nOg - Irish for "Land of Youth" and, of course, the title of the play that first brought us together, how we met.

I gave Kris my phone and he took several pictures of you and I there at that sign. This is one of them. It was one of our last days in the car. You much more preferred going places on foot even if it didn't take us as far afield.

Just seeing you so close at my side brings me such a sense of calm, of peacefulness. You're always near, aren't you, my little sweetheart? Nearer than I can imagine. 

Together in the Meadow

In keeping with that idea I talked about, little sweetheart, to post a picture and tell a little story from our trip to Ireland, here's one from the very first day.

We had to get up awfully early in the morning - seems like it was around 4:30AM! - to go to Gatwick airport and fly to Cork. Then we got in a rental car and drove up the West Coast of Ireland until we got to the little village of Kilcrohane, where we were staying. By the time you and I got to our room, you flung yourself across the bed (I've got a picture of that too!) exhausted. Nap time! We lay down together for a little while before rallying, having a cup of tea in the nice little kitchen looking out at the bay.

Kilcrohane is at the end of Sheep's Head Peninsula, Bantry Bay on one side and the Atlantic opening up at its edge. We could see the bay in the near distance from the kitchen window, so we headed out on a walk, through the garden and out into a meadow beyond. That's where Joy snapped this picture of us.

You look so at home and I am, as ever, grateful to have you in my arms. With all my love forever...

In Ireland

Little sweetheart, it was this week, eight years ago, that we went on our trip to Ireland together.

Although I hadn't been there since 2001, it was one of the first things you and I talked about when we met - my travels there and how very much you wanted to go with me sometime.

After my mom unexpectedly passed away in May of that same year, I knew even more than I had before that I needed to be with you as much as possible and that even though you were already so good at seizing the moment and doing things NOW, not waiting for some mythical "someday", that we needed to plan a trip there.

You were going to be in France in late September and I had to go to London around the same time, so we settled on October. We traveled with my friends Kris & Joy, who had been with me on my previous visits to the emerald isle, and we rented a little cottage in Kilcrohane, a small village at the end of the Sheep's Head Peninsula, a place we'd come to love all those years ago.

You and I went for long walks, one epic one all the way out to and around the lighthouse and another past Doneen pier when a little Jack Russell dog suddenly appeared and ran a few feet ahead of us, seemingly taking us on a tour, for nearly an hour.

I'm so grateful that I have so many wonderful pictures of you on that trip, almost 300, I think. Maybe I'll post a few of them here over the next few days, little sweetheart, and tell a little story.

I'm so very glad we had that trip together, just as you so wanted. It's hard not to feel the sadness begin to rise in my chest at the thought of how much you loved it and had spoken of new plans to return - there was a lovely old man there, Johnny, who had taken such a shine to you, and we had planned to return in the spring when it happened to be his birthday. So many of the village folks that got to meet you were taken with you and your mane of red hair ("where are all the redheads?", you asked one of the locals in the pub, I recall, and he said "they're all in Scotland, lass.").

This picture is one from that day when the little dog led us around the twists and turns of the path down to Doneen pier. May you lead me even now through my own arduous travels and bring me safely home again to your side in the Forever. With all my love...

First Night Back

Little sweetheart, tonight was the first night of the new season of Taize - that little candlelight mediation service held on Wednesdays up at that sweet old little church I told you about on the Upper West Side. They take the months of July, August and September off.

I’ve been working on my recovery from the injuries after getting hit by the car in April, so it was very nice to be there, sitting quietly in the back, singing soft harmonies to the chants, coming forward in the near-darkness to light a candle for you and say our prayer, repeating it yet again once back at my seat before falling into silent contemplation.

Please be near me today, little sweetheart. Help and guide me. I love you with all my heart and soul.