I'm staying up later than I should and listening to a handful of songs again and again. Carolyn is out covering a night shift at the hospital and I can never sleep when she's gone so I'm making the most of my time and rediscovering Tori Amos with the help of iTunes.

She has a great cover of "Landslide" by Stevie Nicks. It's been one of my favorite songs since I was a little kid. I used to sing that song on moonlit ski trips in Millcreek Canyon back in Salt Lake. I sang that song as I drove up Parley's Canyon for the last time in a big yellow truck on my way to St Louis. I sang that song again three years later when I drove across the mighty Mississipi river on another big yellow truck on another one-way trip out to Rhode Island. I sung it tonight with Sylvia bundled against my chest as we watched the sun set on the ocean. She watched with big eyes at the bobbing circle of my flashlight as we followed Teton down the beach.

Oh, mirror in the sky What is love Can the child within my heart rise above Can I sail through the changing ocean tides Can I handle the seasons of my life

A wonderful thing about having a child is that all the unformed dreams of your youth get a second chance. It gives you a hope that you can guide them away from the mistakes that you made and that you can guide yourself away from the mistakes your parents made.