IF BOOKS WERE SONGS, SINGING this one required a leap into the mosh pit. My colleagues Karyn Brinkley, Kris Olsson, Julieanne Schultz and Fiona Stager heard an early tune and didn’t shun me. On the contrary, they encouraged me to leap into the crowd.
The leaping skills of Stace Callaghan, Shar Edmunds and Wayne McLeod helped me find the trajectory and courage. Fiona Inglis was there to catch me; it stays with you when someone does that. The crowd has included gentle hands, Lenore Cooper, Cherrell Hirst, Suzi Jefferies, Mary Philip, Louise Ryan, Cathy Sinclair and Theanne Walters, who lifted me along, and Ellen and Maddie, who know stuff.
The Banff Centre and Wild Flour Bakery Café in Banff and Byron Bay Farmstay in northern New South Wales provided snow or sea and safe places in the maelstrom, as well as folk I’ve come to love.
My forever band is Allen & Unwin, Christa Munns, who ensures we don’t falter musically, not once, Ali Lavau, who co-writes these days, Marg Langvizer, on song since the start, and Annette Barlow, who leads with love and turns songs into hits. She makes us rock stars!
Kim Wilkins, another rock star, listened to every version of this song and understood. Read her Daughters of the Storm.
The 103 bus passengers, Georgie, Fin, Otis and Wil, made my mornings sing, and Otis makes every leap of faith rewarded.
David held my hand and jumped without hesitating.
Wasn’t I lucky?
Mary-Rose MacColl
14 January 2017