I fell in love with an old acquaintance last year, and when I glanced at the #songaweek2023 prompt for this week (week 37), I knew I had to write my September song THIS week. It happened to be a photo prompt, and it happened to be this photo:

Twenty-five years ago my new husband Nathan took me to the Black Hills of South Dakota, rented me a pair of climbing shoes and a harness, tied me to a rope, and asked me to climb the rock in front of me. I tried, because I knew he loved it, but after maybe twenty or thirty feet, my heart pounding, adrenaline overwhelming me, I asked to come down.

I tried climbing again a time or two over the years as my kids grew up learning and loving to climb (especially my daughter Luthien who has now exceeded her dad in skill level), but I just couldn’t feel the appeal.

Until the end of last summer, when Luthien begged me to just go to the gym with her once before she headed off to college, and I reluctantly agreed. That afternoon, I fell hard – in love, not on the floor. I can still remember the moment, halfway up the wall, when I called down to her, “Ooh, I think I finally get why people like this!”

Over the fall and winter I dragged my happy husband to the gym multiple times per week, or went alone if and when he couldn’t join me – in pursuit of harder route grades, building muscle and skill. I took ibuprofen before bed many nights as my middle-aged body adjusted to this new world order I was imposing on it.

Next month I will turn 48 and maybe I will conquer a 5.11+ in this next year of my life. I wonder what else I have yet to try (for the first time or again) and fall in love with?

Recording this song was especially fun because Luthien happened to be home from college this weekend and sang along with me!

I never knew that I loved you
Until I left the ground
Yours was the face I thought I knew
But I know nothing now

I’m new at this
I’m so brand new

I’m learning how to hold you and
I’m always ready to fall
You push me through I think I can
You drive me up the wall

I’m reaching out
I’m so far gone

Here at the beating heart of my heart
Everything turns to stone

Let there be light and let me see
It coming through the cracks
Breathe in the moment, find my feet
Give you all I have

I’m almost there
I’m so nowhere 
I’m here with you
I’m so now here