Spring Postcard

"When that sun passes by & leaves a crushed cranberry sky..." 
                                                                        - Welcome the Night
    Last night, from a 2nd floor bedroom window on W. 24th...
   This time of year, I think of Alaska as a monastery coming out of its annual, winter-long silent retreat. Many of us have endured the long, dark quiet spell (& others reveled in it) - its peaks and valleys and unexpected moments of grace and terror. The bell sounds, we bow and move our stiff, sore limbs & the other parts of ourselves that nearly atrophied in hibernation. 
   And though you can strive to remain in the rhythm of your breath as you wake to the world again, I find there's a moment each spring in the Great North when I step outside, or - as pictured here - into my bedroom with a view, and am instantly walloped all over again by the beauty of a world on the cusp of full bloom...
     Heart stopping. Breathtaking....
    This weekend, Jack Tobin at AK's KONR informed me that Welcome the Night, from last year's "Hope, Alaska" album currently sits in its top ten. Means a lot, as it remains my favorite song on the album. I started writing it in 2008 - I had "Moon River" stuck in my head when I began drafting it - and I kept working on it till I thought it was ready to record in 2013. I've long thought of it as a sort-of hymn to/for the Spenard neighborhood in Anchorage, where I first lived when I moved to AK in 2003. I was glad to learn it's getting airplay and that - from the sound of things - a few people appreciate the tune...
    Hope you've emerged from your own den by now, welcomed spring, toasted those blushing night skies in your own way. Here's to also hoping we can meet over music and all other things good in the not-distant future. 
                                                                 it's all wrapped up in beauty, JJB