BE HERE NOW

Well, hello there.

I have run over and over the start of my first post a million times in my head since November 15th.

I'm still not sure I'll get it right.

But I pulled out on to the Seawall this morning and saw this and realized it might be time for my soul to start writing again:



I feel like I have grown a year older every day since November 15th.

36 days ago.

36 years ago.

Two things of note:

1. Life is a funny thing. A long time ago, someone used the phrase "be here now" as an integral part of our friendship. I never quite understood it or took the time to think about it. Chalked it up to artistic idiosynchracies. Cool words. Whatever.

Fast forward about 5 years later.

A singer named Mason Jennings worked his way into the soundtrack between me and MJ. I recall hearing his music, one song in particular. I didn't know the name; MJ was always playing me artists I'd never heard of, Devotchka, Fleet Foxes, Spoon, TV on the Radio...but this song was always on the playlist, over and over as we sat innumerous nights on the backporch at the Ball house. Wine drunk and in love, talking about the future, talking about politics, talking about building palapas. Just background music though. Know the song but don't really know the song.

On the way to the hospital on November 16th, I plugged in MJ's iPhone, turned on his music and the first song playing was "Be Here Now" by Mason Jennings.

Somehow, I think we knew. It sure makes a lot of sense now.

Sun comes up and we start again.

Wink.

2. There's a reason I didn't take a lot of pictures of the many adventures that MJ and I had. It just never felt right. I never wanted to miss anything that we did, wanted to see it for myself, not from behind the lens of my camera. I even brought my camera with me the weekend of the race and, again, never got around to taking it out. Unwishful thinking, I suppose. John Mayer reminded me:

I'm writing you to catch you up on places I've been
And you have this letter, probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it

I didn't have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to lose my way with words

You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
It brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside, no more 3x5's

I guess you had to be there, I guess you had to be with me
Today I finally overcame tryin' to fit the world inside a picture frame

And by the way:

MJ's time: 1:57
My time: 2:16

We did exactly what we set out to do.



Always have, always will.

More to come, promise.