Hi, Charmion

My heart goes out to you. You've had your life ripped apart with no warning. Not that warning's really helps all that much. In a stretch of three years I lost my wife Ruth, who had Parkinson's disease and Dementia, her brother Everette who was one of my closest friends, my best friend and Best Man at our wedding, Joe Evans, who sang bass in my gospel quartet for ten years, and both of my sisters... and had a heart attack that took me down for a couple of years. Somehow, we manage to get through things, no matter how hard the toll may be. When everything finally stops collapsing, then you feel the full weight. I hope you are coming up from the depths. I am.

In those three years, I almost lost how to play, and the lyrics to many songs I've sung for many years... ones I wrote the lyrics to. I was beginning to doubt if I'd ever regain my playing. I set things aside for two or three weeks, and when I came back, I didn't push myself. I just started playing, with no concern or self doubts. Much to my joy, I found not only was I able to start playing old songs; I was just playing chords and whatever came out in picking, and I started writing a new one.

Thinking about your post and some of the things I've been experiencing these last two or three years, I thought of Johnny Cash's song, Get Rhythm. I'll start a new music thread, to honor the division of posts here, but I'm talking about the message in those two words. Get Rhythm.The last three years I was out of rhythm with life. My days were all mixed up, I was stressed easily and lost perspective on what my life was. I had to stop fighting life, and find a new rhythm. I fought the law/rhythm, and the law won.

I find it difficult to seperate my life and music. They are so intertwined. I won't go on any further here. This is more of a Facebook post. Now I'll go post the song, by Martin Delray, with a little help from Johnny. I'll expand on this post on my Facebook page.