Dance A Little Closer

You can't plan for magic. That's just the plain truth. And anyone who says they can isn't talking about the same kind of magic I am.
Tonight was magic.
Listen- I haven't been out at night in so long I can't remember the last time. And to tell you the truth- I wasn't sure about tonight. I knew I was going to have to drive and I am blind as a batshit crazy bat at night. And Mr. Moon, my designated, loyal not-blind-at-night driver is out on the island. And I would have to wear a BRA! And I haven't exactly felt like a social butterfly lately.
But. Lon and Lis were playing. Had to go. No two ways around it. The table was reserved. Kathleen was coming here and I was going to drive us. Lily and Owen were coming and so was Hank, and May was working at the venue and Rich was coming and Lon and Liz of the West. Did you know that I have a Lon and Lis of the East and a Lon and Liz of the West?
I do.
And so, it had to be done.
And today was so beautiful and easy and restful and when it came time to get ready I did and I put on one of my black Ross dresses. The one that cost Ten Whole Dollars and shoes that weren't Crocs. I painted my eyelids shimmery green and blue and Kathleen came and we drove to town and it was about the most magical night I can even remember.
Jessie's dear friend Melissa came. She's like one of my own. And Jessie got off work and joined us. And then Billy and Shayla and Waylon showed up. And we all ate delicious food and I had one martini when we got there at six-thirty because I knew I wouldn't be driving home for at least three or four hours and the music was incredible and the babies were so happy and good and everyone was so pleased to see everyone else and at one point I looked around and I told Kathleen, "I have seen so many blessings."
Owen was asleep in my daughter's arms and Waylon was sucking on his father's head and Lon and Lis were singing Dance A Little Closer and well, it was just so damn sweet. And everyone was so damn beautiful and people came up to me and told me how gorgeous my grandson was, how gorgeous my daughters are and oh, I have to be May's mother, right?
And I was telling Kathleen about how I'd known this person since I was pregnant with Hank and how he had been friends with the woman who delivered May who has her middle name, which is Ellen, and how that guy there? When he was a baby I had nursed him because I took care of him sometimes when his mother was singing.
It was one of those nights when everything in your life is knitted up in one silvery web that shines, each strand perfect in and of itself and yet, completely and visibly connected to the other.
Magic.
No one had come prepared with silk scarves up her sleeve. No one had a dove hidden in his hat. No one sawed anyone in half.
But I almost levitated with the sweetness of it all, could have floated away on Lon and Lis's voices as they harmonized together on the stage.
But no. I didn't want to float away. I wanted to be right there, centered and anchored and surrounded by it all and I was.
And then the music ended and Kathleen and I drove back here to Jefferson County and it's so much cooler than it has been, that good rain we got during nap time today having cooled everything off and then, there's that moon.
Magic.
Lon and Lis will be back to the house soon, I suppose. I left them eating their dinner with so many people wanting to talk to them, tell them how much they love them, how much they love their music. I don't know if they'll want to go straight to bed or whether they'll want to have a midnight toddy. Either way is fine with me. I'm floating now a little bit on the music in my head, that sweet half-a-moon in the sky, the thrumming of my heart, the way my fingers can still feel Owen's hair which I stroked with my fingers as he slept, the image of Waylon kissing his daddy, the sound of the frogs croaking as rhythmically as a military band in the cool night air.
Magic.
You can't plan for it but dammit, you can sure recognize it when it happens.
And it happened tonight for me.
And I know it.