This Saturday morning is damp, a bit muggy at 70-degrees.  The dogs and I had our walk, spending a good deal chatting with my neighbor, Jane, who lives across the street with her two beautiful blonde labs.

Last night, I taught a class at ACTION Adoption Services, and it felt good to be back in the saddle, again.  My last classes to teach were in the Spring, and the summer sessions were delayed.  I only had one couple, but they were incredible – a teacher and insurance administrator.  Very enjoyable.

A young composer-friend has been sharing his compositions with me over the summer, and I have enjoyed being the mentor in helping him to shape the pieces.  This has also ignited a little spark of creativity within me.

Last night, I pulled out a piece I had written for LOVE IS ETERNAL: Mary Todd & Abraham Lincoln.  It is Lincoln’s methodical, even romantic proposal to the young, witty, intelligent and vivacious Mary Todd. In 1988, I struggled coming up with the right song for this moment in the musical, and all my attempts sounded like something you’d read on a sappy Hallmark card printed on the heavy edge-torn parchment (I am sure there is a more accurate name to describe this card).  One day the following year, my friend, Rick, and I were hiking and breakfasting along the White River in Indiana, and I began watching the clouds take on their shapes, change, merge, and form all these pictures above.  This was mingled with the sounds of nature – the river, the wind through the trees, etc..  I had the jib for my song!

Back at home, I poured through some of my poetry books, and discovered John G. C. Brainard’s (1796–1828) poem, “I Saw Two Clouds At Morning.”

I saw two clouds at morning, tingled by the rising sun, and in the dawn they floated, and mingled into one; I thought that morning cloud was blessed, it moved so sweetly to the west.  I saw two summer currents flow smoothly to their meeting, and join their course, with silent force, in peace each other greeting; calm was their course through banks of green, while dimpling eddies played between.  Such be your gentle motion, till life’s last pulse shall beat; like summer’s beam, and summer’s stream, float on, in joy, to meet a calmer sea, where storms shall cease, a purer sky, where all is peace.

My lyrics became:

LINCOLN: I saw two clouds this morning, tinged by the rising sun, and in the dawn they floated on, mingling into one.  Calm was their course o’er fields of green where nothing dared to come between those clouds which floated gently West; I could not help but feel them blessed.  Remember the snow that last winter fell, bewitching us tenderly by its spell?  Glittering flakes, becoming one, sparkling in the midnight sun.  Have you seen stars in the sky?  A simple picture catches the eye.  They’ve come together appearing as one like sugar confections gently spun.  Though clouds move on across the land, and snows will melt as winters end, stars will fade at the break of dawn, but my love for you lives on and on.

(Lincoln slips the gold band on Mary’s finger; Mrs. Lincoln [narrator] reads the inscription from her ring)

MRS. LINCOLN: “Love is eternal.”

 I finished the song at 4:00 AM.  It is now on the computer, along with the 1992 revised copy in my handwriting.

At 11:00 AM I will meet a music-friend (who is always tons of fun) at Awesome Yogurt to work on a project for her, and then hurry to lunch with another music-friend.  At 2:00 PM, three of my close theatre directing friends will join me at The Loft for The Human Race Theatre Company’s new musicals workshop where we will see two shows.

I anticipate returning home around 11:00 PM.  This is a fun day… but will I fight nodding off?  Yikes!