I am indeed quite lucky.My camera phone seems to back up from the reality of how close we actually were. This is not a large venue and we were front row center balcony. This was early in the show, knowing I couldn’t get a good picture I snapped one early and enjoyed the rest. I’ve been to a shitload of concerts and seen an even bigger shitload of performers, but this performance was perhaps the best I’ve ever seen. He played most all of my favorites and even surprised me with a few from the way back. We even got to participate in some audience orchestration I saw him do once on TV and I was SO excited to hear and do it in person. So awesome.

There was a section of the show where he played alone on stage for a few songs. Just him and his piano. I was so very happy for this segment knowing some other amazing songs would be played here. I would pay to see this kind of concert all the same. This guy can jam on a piano like nobody’s business. However, this little section wold not be a jam session, just an intimate rendition of some of his more serious ballads.

At this time he played the song I named this post after. I’ll never forget the first time I heard it too. It was 7 years ago and I was listening to his first solo record after he and the 5 split up. I was on an airplane to a week long training to Phoenix. It was a Sunday night flight and I remember it being dark. I was traveling alone for work and would spend the next 5 days training on a device I never actually used. Anyway, this song came on my headphones and the plane seemed to grow quiet all of the sudden. The melody and words rocked me to my core. They were insanely beautiful and they made me think of my wife whom I just left behind only hours before. I remember feeling the tears in my eyes on the plane and each of the 1,000 times I listened to the song that week.

When I got home from that trip I remember trying to get her to listen to that song and she didn’t really get it. The lyrics are a little odd, but in the deepest sincerest loving way. Regardless, she enjoyed the song but not like I did. It didn’t really matter anyway because every time I hear that song I think about that moment on the plane. That moment I was overwhelmed with emotion for my wife that was stirred y this song. The purity and the quirkiness of the lyrics matched my personality and quarks perfectly.

Anyway, last night I got to hear this song in person for the first time. I also got to put my hand in hers and silently tell her I loved her as I sang along. I do this thing with my fingers where when holding hands or just a hand on skin I press each finger from the sign for I love you, thumb to pinkie. I felt that wave of emotion all over again but this time instead of fighting back tears of sadness and longing, I fought back tears of happiness and blessing the last 7 years have brought me and my life.

In those 7 years since I first heard this song, we have built our home together and we have built our family together. She has given me 2 amazingly beautiful daughters who have me believing their sun rises and sets based on my presence. They are healthy, happy, and love their daddy as much as he loves them. If we got married all over again today, the traditional me would play our original wedding song again. But today I think I would have to require a second dance. She is my angel standing by today as she was 10 and half years ago and for that I am the luckiest.

I don’t get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am, I am
The luckiest

What if I’d been born fifty years before you
In a house on the street where you live?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a wide sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know

That I am
I am, I am
The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there’s an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
His wife, she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I’m sorry, I know that’s a
strange way to tell you that I know
we belong
That I know
That I am
I am, I am
The luckiest

That I know
That I am
I am, I am
The luckiest