Hey my lovelies!
I am currently melting into a puddle of bliss.
The big beautiful sun is shining inside a wide open cloudless blue sky for the second day in a row. I almost forgot what this looked and felt like. Almost.
I can feel my skin cells, as tendrils on a plant, awaking from their slumber and stretching toward its life-giving warmth. It truly feels like anything is possible.
In honour of the light, today I am sharing a song that reflects rays of musical vibrance.
the context
Back around 2018, I was living in the east end of Toronto in a neighbourhood called Leslieville. It was small enough and self-sustaining enough to be a pocket of community in an otherwise large and unfriendly city. Over the 16 years I lived there, I grew many friendships I would call family. One such friend was an ambitious and creative creature named Rachel.
Rachel was heavily into community action, often guerilla-gardening by planting flowers around the hood where some colour and life was needed. She was also imbued with entrepreneurial spirit and had opened 3 bars that quickly became cozy gathering hubs, over the time I knew her.
Always equipped with a beautiful smile and a helping hand at the ready.
She was a ray of light.
One random day, I received a letter in the mail from her~ handwritten & artful~ expressing her appreciation of our friendship. I was stunned into silent awe at the thoughtfulness, at the gesture of love, at the power of reading such a message written with her hand in ink on paper, as compared to reading words on a screen.
Instead of reciprocating the gift by writing her a letter back I wrote her a song.
This song is it.
the words
There’s a star rising in the east
as warm and bright as the sun
If you should want for anything
She is the one to get the job done
Ray of light
She’s a ray of light
Full of thought
and she’s full of care
Radiating joy with laughter everywhere
If you should need to be uplifted
She is the one to bring all the fun
Ray of light
She’s a ray of light
Those who know her know they’re blessed to know her
Those who know her know they’re blessed to know her
tech deets
For those of you curious about such things, this entire song was recorded using only my i-pad, including the mic for vox and effects. I prefer using Ableton Live as my DAW, but at this time I was between computers and only had Garageband at my disposal. It’s actually quite the impressive software if you have tiny enough fingers to play the digital keyboard!
Thanks so much for popping by to read and listen.
It means so much to me.
Feel free to share, subscribe, leave a comment, make a donation, and consider a paid subscription to fund my music-making addiction.
be great,
love Jacqueline
Oh, my. Love, love. love. More, please.
Genre-bending, great instrumentation. Groovy!