The Desert

I wrote this song shortly after my mother passed away, while I was on a canyoneering trip in Utah. This region is where I first received the news of her illness and months later, I found myself there grieving her death. I was moved by the way the environment could transform before our eyes, a place that at times felt quiet and almost dead, held so much life. Years later I realized the way this landscape gave room for my processing. My memories flooded in, like the rain through the canyons, allowing space for transformation within myself. The final arrangement came together as a ballad to this fragile yet powerful ecosystem and to the complexity of life and loss. When someone’s presence surrounds you in the emptiness and how death can open your eyes to life.