Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well and continue to stay that way during this global health crisis we are facing.  But in addition to protecting your physical wellness, what are you doing to stay mentally healthy today?

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I know we are still facing a serious situation but a new year gives us hope for the new days, seasons, opportunities & moments ahead. Still, music is something that will never change for me. It is my refuge, the most comforting part of my life & the one thing I consistently count on. So until a more normal semblance of life returns, I am going to share a song I listen to that helps me escape the current state of things, if only for a few minutes each day. And if this helps anyone else, even better.

Today is the 89th birth anniversary for The Man In Black, Johnny Cash, He was born February 26, 1932 in Arkansas. He grew up listening to gospel music, learned to play guitar before he was a teenager & formed his first band while he was in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950’s. Today’s song was released in May 1956, over a year before his first album came out in October 1957.

His work is some of the best ever recorded in country music history and he lived an early life strife with tragedy, addiction & hard times, including a divorce from his first wife & mother to his four daughters. But love turned his life around when he married his fellow singer, longtime friend and eventual love interest June Carter in 1968. Their son was born two years later and the couple continued working together for the next three decades.

Cash was always very vocal of how Carter’s love changed him, although he still fought his addiction with several stints in rehab during their marriage. But despite the tough outlaw image he earned over the years, he never shied away from admitting how much love & happiness he found with his wife. They were married 35 years before Carter died in 2003. Cash followed her four months later. They remain one of the greatest love stories in music history, country or otherwise.

“I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you
Because you’re mine, I walk the line“.

Johnny Cash with the love of his life, June Carter Cash, circa 1968. (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Johnny Cash: “I Walk The Line” (1956, written by Johnny Cash).

I do not own the rights to anything.  I am just sharing what I love and how I am coping with you.

Stay well.