In a Meadow of Bluebells!

This morning instead of going back to sleep when I got home from taking my wife to work, I decided to call my Grandad in England and see how he is doing.

Three years ago, my Grandad asked me to write a song for him based on a conversation that we had during his previous visit, I wrote the song called "Outside Looking In". I hadn't written a song in about 7 years and was a little worried about whether or not I could still do it. Two and a half years ago, my Grandparents came over to visit and I played the song for him and the rest of my family for the first time. It was a really good emotional moment for all of us and everyone was impressed with the song. For the entire visit, my grandad saw me as his personal entertainer. He had a list of songs that he wanted me to learn for him, so I would spend my weeknights learning songs for him and on the weekends I would visit and play them for him.

After writing a new song and spending a whole summer playing guitar and learning some old songs, it awoke the musician in me that had laid dormant for years. It reminded me how much I loved to play and as I started to get some of my skills back and get used to playing again that love really became apparent to me. When I was hugging my Grandad goodbye the night before they left, he whispered in my ear "You are too talented to let this slip away, don't waste it. Promise me that you will do something with your music"

Well that was all it took. I started playing shows as a solo artist and recorded an EP within 6 months of him saying this to me. Eventually it turned into a whole band and I have been constantly performing, recording, or anything else to do with music since. Because my Grandad had so much to do with getting me going down this path, he loves to follow along and hear about all of the progress, so he was really excited when he answered the phone and it was me calling.

My Grandad is 84 years old, and it always amazes me how young in mind he is. He was telling me today that his mind feels strong, that in his thoughts he feels just as young as he ever was. But he said he feels like his body is not keeping up, that he gets tired easy and gets a lot of aches and pains. I am so fortunate to be able to have good and intelligent conversations with him at his age. He was talking a lot about his beliefs of what will happen when he dies and that he knows he is not far from that journey. Not something that I was very happy to hear about right now, but still glad that he shared his thoughts. He told me about a song or verse that he wants me to write after he is gone about laying in a meadow of bluebells. I am not sure the significance, I think it is something from his youth, a moment of beauty that he once had.

Peace is lying in a meadow of bluebells while they ring in the wind.