In the glow of the unexpected...

When I was pregnant with Rebecca, David and I lived in a two family house.

It was a sweet little apartment on a street with mostly big fancy grown up type houses. Our apartment was small and not really going to work for us once Rebecca was born. We began to search for a condo in our very modest price range. We were sorry to say good bye to that street and to our next door neighbors who were very nice.

We found a great place and in December of 1998 we moved. Once Rebecca was born in May we walked back to our old apartment to see our old neighbors and introduce them to Rebecca. When we arrived they had some news of their own. They were moving!

"We just sold our house," they began, "to the nicest young couple. They have a baby the same age as yours. They are famous musicians- she was on the cover of Rolling Stone. You should come introduce yourself once they move in. Her name is Tanya."

I never stopped by and introduced myself. I was tired. I was covered in baby barf and also, I was shy.

I sort of forgot about it and got on with the business of trying to figure out what the heck I was doing as a mother.

One thing that I did do was attend the weekly sing-alongs at the town library. It was there that I found myself sitting next to a pretty woman who had a cute baby the same age as mine. We got to chatting and she told me her name.

Yes, you guessed it. Tanya. We became friends quickly. Our babies were the same age, our parenting philosophies were very similar and it was just so nice to have a new friend to complain with about being tired.

This is a long story, huh? You still with me? Hang in there, we are getting to the good part.

So this new friend is Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, Breeders and Belly fame. But to me she was just another mom who needed to complain about teething.

Our families became very close, so close that a few years ago David emailed Tanya a poem that I had written and asked her if she would be interested in using it in a song. He really wanted it to be a surprise, but Tanya told him that since she would need to change some of the words she wanted to be sure that I would not mind having it massaged a bit for the song.

I did not mind one tiny bit. She went on to write and record an amazing song which has finally been released.

You can listen to a preview here:

Jars of Fireflies featuring Tanya Donelly



It's also available on Itunes. You could even buy it! Which would be crazy!

So mostly my life is about junking, dog hair, homeschooling and laundry, but sometimes little gems of unexpectedly delight fall into my lap and for a few moments I feel like a princess in a story with a glistening tiara and the favor of the gods.