Persephone

Around this time tomorrow, I will be a first-time uncle. My kid sister Lani, who lives in San Antonio, is due to be induced and little Caitlin Naomi Kinion will make her entrance to this world. I don't think Lani or her husband Chris truly know what crazy and wonderful adventures await them -- I wish them all the best and we look forward to meeting Caitlin later this summer!

When we were kids, Lani and I used to listen to Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" radio show every weekend. We never called in one of those "long-distance dedications," but if that show were still on the air (who knows, maybe it is), my long-distance dedication today would be to Lani as she readies herself for the biggest day of her life tomorrow. It's a song called "Persephone" by Helen Horal, one of my new favorite Charlottesville singer-songwriters. It is a love song from Helen to her mother, from whom she is separated by some physical distance; it refers to the ancient Greek myth about the beautiful maiden Persephone and the deep love that her mother Demeter had for her that caused Demeter to travel to the ends of the earth in search of her daughter when they became separated. To wit:

In your arms, I find all the world, and gifts of summer you bring.
Carry me over oceans to lands, bringing home with me.
If home is where the heart is, you are my heart.
Wherever this world carries you, carries me, I'm your Persephone.
I can't give you seasons, only songs,
and passion, those seeds, I'll swallow one by one.
But the devil's fruit can keep me only so far,
I'd walk this world to find out where you are.
If home is where the heart is, you are my heart.
Wherever this world carries you, carries me, I'm your Persephone.

(Click here to hear the song, from Helen's CD "Words Unbroken," or click here to see her performing it live.)

I love that line -- "If home is where the heart is, you are my heart. Wherever this world carries you, carries me" -- what an apt description of the abiding bond that children have with their mothers and vice-versa. Good luck tomorrow, Lani!

UPDATE: Welcome to the world, Caitlin Kinion. Born at 5:28pm on Monday, June 23, 7lbs 12oz, 21 inches long, with "deep blue eyes, dark hair, long legs and big 'ol hands and feet...and a very sweet temperament" (according to proud dad Chris).