Fire and Rain....
Day 01 - Your favorite song
Day 02 - Your favorite movie
Day 03 - Your favorite television program
Day 04 - Your favorite book
Day 05 - Your favorite quote
Day 06 - Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 - A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 - A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 - A photo you took
Day 10 - A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 - A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 - Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 - A fictional book
Day 14 - A non-fictional book
Day 15 - A fan-fic
Day 16 - A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
I guess that would have to be “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor. It’s a sad comfort song. It’s about death.
Way back a long time ago… fourteen years ago… on a beautiful sunny April morning, and let me stress this was the first really beautiful in a long time, a my father walked to the grocery store to buy breakfast and had a heart attack and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. And thus started the worst day of my life.
The thing about a sudden and unexpected death is all seams unreal. And while I generally view the Catholic practice of open caskets as barbaric and creepy as all get up, I found it necessary to see my father’s body, because until I did, I could not comprehend his death. Anyway the repeated chorus line of “But I always thought that I’d see you again” was the one that stuck with me. Because I never saw his death coming and I always thought that I’d see him again.
I was only one in the family that spent that last summer down the cape. Alone in the cottage that dad had spent his last time in.
I remember my uncle Chard had asked if he could do anything after the funeral. And I had asked him to go down the cape and make sure that… how do I phrase this? I wanted to make sure that the coffee that dad had brewed that morning was cleaned up and the bed made. I didn’t want my mom coming into a house that looked like dad was still living there. And there was coffee, and a pan on the stove, and a book on the table face down holding his place... as if nothing had ever happened.
Anyway all this lead up is to the day that I was down the cape and ran out of groceries… and I had to go to the store that my dad had died in. As if this wasn’t hard enough, as I got to the bread isle and um “Fire and Rain” came on. I can barely explain how strongly this affected me. I ran out of the supermarket leaving a full basket of groceries in the aisle crying. I think I ate ramen that night. The good thing was it was so horrible, that I couldn’t imagine anything worse happening at the grocery store and I was able to shop there for the rest of the summer.
It’s still the saddest song I know.
Fire and Rain
Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way
oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
I’ve been walking my mind to an easy time
My back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it’ll turn your head around
Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line
To talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.
oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now
Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now
Day 17 - An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 - Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 - A talent of yours
Day 20 - A hobby of yours
Day 21 - A recipe
Day 22 - A website
Day 23 - A YouTube video
Day 24 - Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 - Your day, in great detail
Day 26 - Your week, in great detail
Day 27 - This month, in great detail
Day 28 - This year, in great detail
Day 29 - Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 - Whatever tickles your fancy