Standing by Peaceful Waters

Building a Castle with memories. Love Letters to John Prine out there in the Great Blue Yonder.

Neither Lake Elizabeth or Lake Marie, this is the majestic Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada

Thinking of John Prine and how I still cry missing him. My parents were hippies and we never went to church but we watched Austin City Limits religiously every Saturday night. And I remember John Prine’s 1992 Austin City Limits performance and how he was holding a guitar, telling the story of Jesus the Missing Years, with a lit cigarette in his hand, radiating all that warmth and ease, like he was your long lost best friend. And I remember him telling the story of Lake Marie- and how all my life I felt like Lake Marie. Not the one everyone came to see.

Standing by peaceful waters.

Last year in December I was talking to a patient on Zoom. He was in Kentucky and I was states away. The holidays were coming and he was depressed for all the usual reasons, his family torn apart by the storm of his addiction. He was empty and alone. And I said “Do you know John Prine?”

He said “Honey, I’m from Kentucky,” with the warmth that only a man with a Southern accent has.

As a way to say “of course I know John Prine.”

And so I sang him Everything Is Cool.

Sending love to all the lonely ones this December.

Thank you John for all the songs. For all the ways you took the heartache and made us feel less alone, more loveable, more lighthearted.

Miss you Buddy. Thank you for all the songs, for the tears, for all the years of your warm voice telling sad songs that made us smile.

Half an enchilada and you think you’re gonna drown.

If you know you know.

Rest in Melody.