Cache

If I were superstitious, I would head home, lock myself in a closet and cross fingers that a third event would be no charm. As it is, I am impressed how fast life can change between blinks and the beat of a heart.

On the highway in the dark of last night, I saw headlights half a mile ahead run askew where no road should be. It turns out a young driver had fallen asleep northbound, crossed the median (down a gully and back up the other side), crossed the southbound lane and landed largely unscathed halfway down the embankment. Terrified beyond words, she was lucky to be alive, though battered enough the emergency responders carefully transported her to an ambulance and whisked her to the hospital.

On the mountain today, lower down on a run-out that can be traversed at high speed, I stumbled on an edge and flew perilously close to a chairlift tower, my head (without helmet) careening mere inches from certain death, my sad story of rejuvenation nearly cut short in mid-sentence.

How fortunate we are to be able to ponder the wonder of this world and recognize the fragility of our existence in it. All too often we are swept up in the details and lose sight of the forest, dancing and dodging among the trees. In the day-to-day, we tend to forget just how precious is the gift of life until some sudden catastrophe threatens to snap it away.

As easily as a tragedy can devastate, hard work is required to create positive change. For so many years, I have bounced and bumbled from one hurdle to another hardship, creating life-altering difficulties with many decisions or non-action, but all the while raising a family, growing a life, educating a soul that could evaporate in a second with one twist of fate.

Yet some of us may know the spectacular moment of love-at-first-sight when you recognize instantly that your life has changed for the better if she (he) will only turn and look your way again. Or after nine months of labor, the tiny smeared head protrudes at long last to cries of wonder and joy, a new life beginning, and older lives forever changed.

Last night marked a significant moment when four relative strangers hugged with laughter in a driveway--half in disbelief, half in relief—acknowledging the reality of the commitment they had just made to play music together, taking it out into the world as far as their notes will carry. Naming ourselves “Cache”—a trove of varied treasures—we are focused on presenting our own original songs, three writers and a drummer singing about life and love.

With grown children and a sense of time running out, we have found each other partly through serendipity and mostly through our individual determination to sing out or bust. In a great leap of faith that still feels natural and comfortable, we have united with little auditioning, consummated our intentions with simple notes resounding, one-night trials embracing a giant “YES!”

Although the decision is made, unlike the crushed head that would have resulted had I actually collided with that tower this morning, irreversibly changing my life, this will take much effort, tenacity, and brilliant luck to really make a difference. At any time, one or all of us could back out and the band crumble, or metamorphose into a different version with other players. Much remains to be discovered and accomplished, but as of today Cache is poised and practicing, looking forward to performing perhaps in a venue near you.

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