I wrote this song on 26 November 2018 with Zemil from Eritrea. There are some people from whom you sense a profound energy, and Zemil was one of these individuals. He expressed his thoughts on the meaning of life, which he believed was to be happy, and he shared his voice to create the melody for the song. He sang very quietly, and I am remiss that I rested my phone on the side of my ukulele while we sang the song together because it meant the instrument overpowered his gentle, beautiful voice. The song was not a long one, but a piece of music does not have to possess great length to be poignant, haunting, and lovely all at once.

I remember that we brought the paper from this song to post the following week. Our friend Mohammed joined us the next Monday, and we engaged in a lively discussion on his thoughts and our own about the meaning of life. The words we shared eventually became the basis for our next song: I could be you, You could be me.

To read more about the writing of this song, visit Guiding Song: The Meaning of Life

These are two recordings of the song from that afternoon: