Inspiration sometimes rides the coattails of relaxation. Other times, in the voice or riffs of a gifted musician, in thoughts of the people and things I’ve loved, during the time I lay down before falling asleep each night. On this particular night, I stumbled across Enya, a CD not often listened to. I nonchalantly slipped her into my music box. Maybe I just wanted to experience the sense of togetherness that Celtic melodies and progressions bring. They seem wrapped in history and timelessness. Why not? An easy choice for exploring times all but faded in subconsciousness.
I’ve found that like light, sound becomes “white” when you start combining multiple colors, notes. More popularly referred to as harmonics. Certain Enya songs are great for expressing the harmonics that push the threshold of whiteness, a sound that creates an infinate managery of sensations, thoughts and memories within my mind. I hear multiple songs simultaneously, usually in the same key, and see notes for the songs and times in my life that they occupy. On occasion, they lead to lucid dreams and visions of the past…this was one of those nights.
The summer nights of 2003 were some I might compare to being as enthralled, as in love with the wild as deep as any 24-year-old guy who finds his self a rural Alaskan village.
The village of King Salmon and neighboring Naknek seemed to breathe people. I didn’t notice the first year I was there but, after spending two years, it became part of me. Deep inhalations of tourists in early summer, and swift exhalation at the first signs of winter. Our community soaked in the financial nutrients, and expelled waste: Scenery, wildlife, natural resources…
With each seasonal breath comes a resurrection, a pulse of warmth and confusion, what resembles life in an otherwise desolate community. This year’s breath brought good friends. Not lifelong friends, but brief friendships that helped me encapsulate a moment to remember.
So Tana, Rick, Susan and Sam: Thank you for that moment and thank you Enya for bringing it back.