To celebrate my favorite time of year on Cape Cod, I have decided to create Sweet September: 12 Days of 12 Rebirth.

In this series I will be sharing a track from my recent Album 12 Rebirth, talking about its creation and also linking it to an earlier song of mine. Read more about why I am doings this at Day 1.

Day 2 Six and Three

It’s only day 2 and I feel like I am already breaking the rules. I love breaking rules even when they are the rules that I made up as I way to give structure to my often wild and ever moving creative flow. I had intended to share a song from 12 Rebirth and from one of my other older records, but today I am sharing a song I never even officially recorded.

I woke up this morning listening to many many cars driving by on Rte 6A. I thought oh, it’s Labor Day, I bet a bunch of people are leaving the Cape. Even though this “end of summer” marker seems less and less real each year because so many are back to school much earlier, I still feel that Labor Day is a big marker of time and the end of a season.

This got me thinking about marking time and how one of the ways I mark time is through my songs. If you have seen me live over the last few months, you may have heard me talk about how each year at the anniversary of my mom’s death, I would write a song, as a way of marking that moment in my life, honoring her and honoring my journey with the grief and awareness that comes from losing a mother.

I tell a funny story about how some years, I skipped it completely or other years the song just wasn’t that good. Year Six finally made it on my recent album 12 Rebirth, which seems kind of perfect. It is the oldest song on the record and yet is a great honoring of my family and my 6 nieces and nephews. I have no children of my own and so my nieces and nephews are also how I mark time. I look at them and think, how did you become 22? Or right after you were born, I was living in Egypt and now you’re 10. Whoa!

As I was thinking of which old song to partner with Six, I got stuck until I remembered a song I wrote and recorded called Three. I never recorded it officially but I made a youtube video of it. It was Mother’s Day of 2010 and I was living in Egypt. I remember creating it in my little apartment in New Cairo in between teaching kids music. What a journey that was!

How do you mark time? Do you see value in marking time? Last night I watched Interstellar (again) and I was thrilled by how it raises so many questions about time and space and the power of science and love. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

If you enjoy songs like Six and Three, consider joining me over at Creative Play with Viv and Alicia, a patreon page we just launched that helps support my creative process towards my next record and the larger vision of Gaia’s Love Festival.

Happy Monday. Happy Labor Day. Happy Day 2 of Sweet September.