LFTB Extra Video: Love by the Lake

Earlier this summer, I played a set at my sister's birthday party, and among the many guests was my Uncle Tom, who was going to get married to his then-fiancee Kathi in early October.  I wrote a song for my sister a few weeks before, and played it at the party.  After I got done playing, Uncle Tom came up to me and jokingly said, "Hey, Collin, that song you wrote for Kelly was pretty good.  I liked it.  You got three months to write one for me and Kathi."  I think he would have been fine if I hadn't written one for them.  But once he gave me the idea, I really wanted to do it, if the music and words would come.  Turns out, they did.

My father and his brother Tom, and their parents (my grandparents), spent a lot of their summers on a beautiful Maine lake called Square Pond.  Tom has continued to live and work in the area for many years.  Kathi, now his wife, lived right near this lake for a long time as well, although they met relatively recently. 

I spent a lot of my summer vacations as a kid staying with my grandparents at their house on the lake.  We called it "Camp" because originally, it was not winterized and could only be inhabited in the summer.  Eventually my grandparents had it winterized, and moved in to live there year-round.

Tom and Kathi Dancing at Their Wedding

One of my most vivid memories of my times on the lake as a young kid is waking up one morning, walking outside to go down to the little beach in front of the house, and seeing the little beads of light reflected from the Sun, appearing and disappearing so quickly, as if they were actual tiny, shiny objects flitting about to and fro on the ripples of the water's surface.



This image came to me again, as I sat down and this new song flowed into and out of me.  It felt like the perfect beginning to this love song.  I attended Kathi and Tom's wedding a few weekends ago, and it was simply lovely.  The full lyrics to the song are below. 

Woke up by the lake one day and opened up my eyes
Dancing on the water, a thousand tiny little lights
Filled me with such peace and joy, and that is when I knew
The lights were dancing just like my heart dances for you

Darling please take my hand and walk the shore with me
We'll let our love sing songs to us and set our spirits free
We'll listen to the gentle waves splashing on the beach
And hear majestic loons proclaim the treasure Life can be

I had hoped my heart would find another sweet and dear
But who knows where the winds of Life will take us year to year
Then I met you and I could feel a longing deep somehow
To spend as much time with you as Fate would allow
Now every minute that I spend sitting by your side
Fills me with gratitude for how Destiny provides

Woke up by the lake today and looked across the waves
Those pretty lights were dancing on the water just the same
But my life had become something bigger and new
Such love and bliss all from the shining miracle of you

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