Back in my ears again.

Somehow it got by me that the Mavericks, one of my very favorite bands, released an album earlier this year. Yeah, I don't know how that happened, either. I guess it was because I'd given up on seeing a new slate of songs from them years ago. I'm not gonna wear a hair shirt over it, seeing as how it went a good decade since their last one. Then I chanced across this song:

It's a thing of beauty. Chugging along with that bouncy Tex-Mex rhythm, it really embodies a type of song I love: sad lyrics with a happy melody. I could have written this song; still could, if it hadn't already been done so well here. It put me in mind of my own life, and what I've learned, and what I still need to work out.

Love, lost love, love gone wrong...it's all endlessly fascinating. We fall in love, riding the waves, and, often enough, sinking to the depths. You know it as well as I do. It's a constant. Some luck out and manage to navigate through the depths of life without running aground or hitting the bottom, but the rest of us have to wreck against the rocks at least a few times.

Sometimes we can drag ourselves from the wreckage and try again quickly; other times it takes a lot longer. I'm one of the latter cases. It took me years to even think about putting to sea again in the relationship ocean. We all move at our own pace, of course. Life continued to flow, and other matters required attention, and one day I noticed the skies, felt the wind, and decided to set sail again. Storms always pass, waters become calm again...for a time, and a sad song can make you happy just from the knowledge that you made it through the Clashing Rocks like the Argonauts, and can look back and be glad that you survived. Because you will, because I did.