it began with water
01, cottonwood
moose in the willows stellar jays flashing blue through the trees fish holding in the cold current quiet places that seem to know more about life than I do --- I spent a lot of time there this past year driving slowly up the canyon watching water levels rise and fall mostly listening --- but more than anything Cottonwood was water the sound of it the way the creek gives life to the canyon without needing to announce itself under bridges past trailheads through rock snow trees memory --- for many years I had lived mostly in my mind software meetings screens strategy and somewhere inside all that effort I forgot how to feel things the way I used to --- intellectually experiencing life and feeling your way through it are such different ways to live --- Cottonwood brought me back to something older maybe since I was a teenager sleeping outside near the Snake River back when the mountains felt like part of life --- the beginning was water and water knows how to find what has hardened and slowly make it soft again --- this song marked the beginning of remembering who I have always been



It really is a special place. ❤️❤️