When my sister was in the hospital she told the nurses, “my sister makes things” as she held a little bouquet of wildflowers I had snipped in the parking lot of the hospital to her face. She sat with her eyes closed and brushed that little bouquet across her cheeks over and over. Her connection to Nature was deep, much like mine. It was a bond that held us together. Nature and music. Music has been such an enormous part of my life that I take its importance for granted. The bonds that music has created in my life are like lifelines. When I need to tell my very very very best friend in the entire universe that I am thinking about her I will share a song. Somehow, we have this deep psychic bond and 99% of the time we are both on target for what the other one needs. My sister and I were the same way. We had a tumultuous relationship as kids and then as adults, but she knew I loved her fiercely and she knew that dropping me an Ani song would make me smile and soften me like butter next to the stove.

Music is my eldest son, Thomas’, life blood. Quite literally, without music, he would wither and die. You can check him out Corner Soul on Bandcamp for his past work. My youngest has recently found the bass and the spark has been lit. We visited NYC this past weekend to see him… my mom heart can only take so long between visits. For these two it’s now all about record shops and bookstores looking for vinyl and I’m having flashbacks to my own youth and I love it. I loved that side by side flipping through vinyl conversations…. I mean they make movies about it…. Empire Records, High Fidelity. It was casual but it could get heated, but music always ends in love. To see these two in NYC record shop flipping through albums was like medicine for this mama’s heart. I don’t have my kids in the same place at the same time all that often and this weekend was emotional for me. I think I cried the whole subway ride back to GC and then to Rowayton where we stayed. I kept looking at them thinking “I made that”.

I love this image of them. G is talking Thomas’ ear off while Thomas looks for wisdom to share. G came home with a nice stack of music thanks to his big brother.

Thomas and I got to spend a little time alone together at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and I was able to sit across from him in the conservatory cafe, in the bright white light, and really look at his face. I searched his eyes for sadness, I found a little. I searched his face for illness, signs of exhaustion, any signs of under-thriving. My mom radar was on HIGH. I am happy to say, after a thorough evaluation that my son is thriving. He’s in a band headed to SXSW in March! Huge.

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The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens were lovely! Although obviously the off season, the conservatory was so warm and tropical. The aquatic zone was unfortunately too warm to even walk through. It was a sauna-like experience, you may be down with that! The plants are beautiful and each section is it’s own bio-dome. Southern Maine could really use a conservatory!

Thank you Barb and Ed for lending us your beautiful home in the charming village of Rowayton. I would love to go back and photograph it properly in spring. Our neighbor and good friend Ed is also G’s bass instructor and an accomplished muscian and we are so grateful for his time.

I’m also grateful for my beau for making sure this trip happened. I was about to bail and I would have it weren’t for him. Thank you Kev. XO