This month's song is entitled "Rapture." This song is particularly close to my heart because it is the first song that I wrote on the piano (rather than the guitar). I was listening to some of Sting's music at the time I wrote this and was thinking about a friend of mine who means a great deal to me. The theme of the song is overcoming the wounds of our past, in order to embrace the beau ty of our present and of our future. I was thinking about my friend and how we had both overcome some very difficult situations in our growing up process, and how rising above those situations has made us both strong and perseverant, as well as a bit overly protective of our hearts too. It has always been my hope that as I grow older, I will be able to open my heart even wider, so that I can fully express all of who I am in this life, and I hope this for my friend, and everyone else, as well. "Rapture" is the place we come to once we have laid down all of our hurts and finally, fully opened our hearts as far as they can go.
I'd like to express my deep gratitude to Sheryl Melbane (drums), Vicky Grossi (violin), Laura Boytz (cello) and Jennifer Daniels (vocals), for lending their wonderful musical talent to this song, as well as to Cookie Marenco for engineering and producing it.
I am so thrilled about how well this song was captured in the recording studio. This song means a great deal to me on a personal level. It all started with an incredibly powerful dream that I had one morning out of the blue. I was literally awakened from a deep sleep with a feeling of love and longing which filled my entire body. I woke up with tears in my eyes. It was such a rare and exquisite moment for me. I immediately got up from the bed and stumbled downstairs to the piano to see if I could capture some of what I was feeling on the piano and with my voice. I wrote the song in about an hour, in that half awake, half asleep state, and when I was finished I actually thought that I would never record it because it was so ethereal. I'm so glad that I changed my mind! :) In a larger sense, this song makes me think about how we should all be constantly looking for those moments in our life that are filled with that deep sense of joy and love. There is so much suffering going on in the world right now, and when I listen to this song, I am constantly reminded that there is a force of love that is all around us, all of the time, and that all we need to do is close our eyes, open our hearts and let it all in!