ice cold water

Sing and gleam, mountain stream
I know where you flow.
Falling down, losing ground
Crash the world below.

Lose the dream
of purity you wanted me to bring.
Lose the dream
There’s nothing sacred now.

Something fails, yet still goes on.
I was in the box, but now it’s gone.

Like a swirl, like a wave
Changing me inside
Suck me down, underneath
This is where I’ll hide.

On and on
to bluer things you wanted me to bring.
On and on
Your arrow in my hand.

Something dies, yet still goes on.
I was in the box, but now it’s gone.

Waterfall over me
Holding up my hands
Blue and cold, touching me
I don’t understand

How I feel
I waited for you everyday alone
Standing there
There’s nothing certain now.

Losing form, yet flowing on
I was in the box, but now its gone.

I wrote this song while living in Nashville, where- just as in L.A.– it was a great struggle to go out and perform every night while living in the grips of extreme shyness and stage fright.

In my Nashville apartment I had two bathrooms, so one of my anti-shyness therapies involved filling one bathtub with scalding hot water and one bathtub with ice cold water and then running back and forth between the two to submerge myself. It was not fun, but as usual I was hoping that causing myself physical pain would make performing less painful by comparison.

The one “therapy” that actually worked- at least in the short term- was putting sage oil on a handkerchief and breathing through it while driving to the venue. By the time I had reached my destination, inhibitions seemed to have magically vanished, and I could walk onto the stage with only a healthy handful of butterflies..But then I read that sage oil is toxic, and that was the end of that.

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