Comfort Me

A song written in 1995. The composer writes,

It was written on a day when I wasn’t doing my life very well or very gracefully. My partner and I were being quite snarley with each other; I didn’t want to be around people and was generally feeling intolerant. I was in no mood to be nice, loving, or anything of the sort. We were visiting friends who lived on a mountaintop in Northern California. The house had no power or running water, but, luckily for me, I did have a baby grand piano in fairly good tune. (It was glossy white, no less. I kept expecting Liberace to walk in). Music has always had the ability to take me out of myself (or more into myself as the case may be). It was in this spirit that I went to the piano that day. I sat there for a while and just let my fingers wander around the keys. After a while, a chord progression presented itself. As I began to feel better, I decided to ask for guidance in how to get out of the terrible mood I had succumbed to. And then came the words. They were a combination of a prayer and a plea. As I began to believe the words that I was singing, I was able to lighten up and find compassion for myself, then my partner, then the others we were with. I continued to sing the song to myself until I felt ready to carry that gentle, compassionate energy with me.

Comfort Me has been sung in a number of settings from concerts, to worship services, to community gatherings, to healing circles. It is a song that seems to work most effectively when sung by a group. It lends itself easily to people making up and adding harmonies, and this is encouraged by the composer. It is the composer’s hope that those who sing or hear this song find that it brings them deeper into themselves and their communities.

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