I'm very pleased with this, because it's the first tune I did completely on my own. I started writing it at the office during lunch, finished it on the el ride home, sat down and recorded the guitar, the vocal, and the harmony in about three takes that night, and voila! My first 100% original, self-produced work.

I'm trying not to get too pleased with myself....but I am really happy with how it turned out. It gives me hope that all the work I'm doing right now is worth it.

So, the short version is that I've been busy. A child was born. Songs have been written and recorded, and more are in the works. I'm in Boston for the first time next week, which will be interesting (sadly, business and not pleasure).

I've been thinking about the narrative of my life, and how every moment is a new beginning. I think it's easy to break your life into pieces, to give yourself benchmarks and goals, starting places and finite ways of counting the time as it passes.....but it's always a moving target. People never "get it together," people never get a truly clean slate - those metaphors are convenient illusions. You show up on the doorstep of every minute carrying a truckload of baggage you can never set down, and even if you unpack it and try to lighten the load....it's still with you.

My point, I suppose, is that the only thing you really have is this moment, this one instant and the choices sitting before. To pretend otherwise is dodging the question.

Last night was the Chicago Reclaiming Samhain ritual. It was nice to go to a big ritual where I wasn't overly involved in the planning, and could just sort of kick back and have a ritual experience. The team did a great job, and I was so pleased and proud and happy. It was a great time.

I had a really intense trance experience during the ritual. My nephew, who I feel around me often at rituals, came with me to meet my shadow. Since he passed, I've felt his presence many times, but I'd never seen a visual representation of his energy....and I did last night. He came as a boy of four or five - older than he would be now if he'd lived...like all of my brothers children, he looked a lot like me. It was hearbreaking to see his face, to see him as the child he didn't get a chance to be in the corporeal world. He held my hand, and as he faced my shadow with me (and my ever-present spirit guide Joe...which is a whole other story), Aiden had no shadow - he was pure light, pure innocence and joy.

There's more to the trance, but that was my favorite moment. Whether the spirit of my nephew spends time with his auntie...I don't know. I don't know if it's a comfort to me to think he does, or if it just makes me feel special and connected to believe it, but I do believe it. I know sometimes this kind of thing seems so woo-woo and wackadoo...but for whatever reason, it's part of how I relate to spirit and connect to the divine.

I know this is old hat, but I watched it again this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it....so in case you haven't seen it, here's Ok Go on Treadmills.