Old Man Winter inspired “As If I Could” from “Courage Walks with Us”

It was Winter. I was on the tenth floor overlooking Halifax Harbour. It was a beautiful white-out blizzard. Snow was mowing in all directions, leaving spirograph-like* traces on the picture window. As I turned back toward the kitchen, I noticed it was snowing inside. I was not on the ground floor, nor was I in the penthouse, how could snow make its way inside? …And not only that, it was doing so beautifully, placidly descending towards the bathmat. Was I in a giant snow-globe? Was I in my own (Canadian-version) of the Truman show? …Snowstruck directed by Norman Jewison? How does one snap out of a snow globe?

No, the wind carried the snow along the dryer ducts starting from the outside of the unit, along those in the bedroom, and funnelled it through the bathroom fan. By the time the wind reached the ventilation fan, the gusts were stilled, and so the snow meekly fell. This true story captures for me Canadians’ “it’s complicated” relationship we have with winter. From the outside, the snow-globe is pretty; from the inside, the snow-globe is full of Benzoic Acid (C6 H5 CO2 H). Sometimes, liking or not-liking winter is all a matter of perspective….

Look for As If I Could on my new CD Courage Walks with Us…a gem of a smooth jazz tune
*For those unfamiliar with the spirograph (i.e. you are too young), it is “a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids.” (see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph).