Oh! the joy!

I'm not Lewis or Clark, whichever penned this phrase way back when, and added "ocian in view". But I am feeling joyful this morning.

It's a gorgeous day, I am well again, and I got to attend a perfectly lovely party last night at a friend's----lots of music, friends, and terrific food at a home on a hill above the Sound. I didn't have enough sleep under my belt to stay beyond 9 p.m., but just spending a few hours in that beautiful spot with musical friends was enough to wake me this morning with a smile on my face!

Music was part of it; lots of guitars, mandolins, a fiddle, a concertina, a harmonica, tambourine, spoons, and people who knew how to make them sing. Me, I just sing, and that's enough for me. We did enough singing to make me happy and enough jamming to raise the roof. Fiddle tunes, especially.

But what was most intriguing was to meet other people in our host's life. You can tell a lot about a person from the friendships they consider important. Our host is very reserved, very private, doesn't share a lot about himself, so he's kind of a mystery to many. But his friends are not so shy and I learned more about him in the hour or so I spent talking with those friends than I have learned in two years of playing music with him.

Isn't it interesting to learn who somebody is through his/her friends' eyes? All indications have been that our host is multi-talented, musically, professionally, artistically, intellectually. But the depths to which these talents reach were undisclosed because he is so private. I didn't know he was Renaissance Man. He would never have let on.

Lots of friends will be glad to dish, lovingly or not, about another friend. None of that here. Just respect and affection. It was lovely to hear that kind of regard for somebody I've been wishing to know better.