There is a thing, and it’s a real thing and I call it the signal. I know you know what I’m talking about and you call it something different and that’s ok, but I call it the signal. I wake up some days and I’m tuned into it and it does its thing but sometimes I’m not tuned into it and life gets a little black and white, I’m not feeling the vibration like I should, there’s a background noise like a dentist’s drill. I need something, there’s a hole inside me with nothing to fill it and its getting bigger by the second and it’s going to eat me up and then-

There she is. Like a sweet song on the plains, wind rolling right through the heavens so sweet and refreshing there she is just sitting there, calling to me.

Hello, Michael, just come over here a while and sit with me. Just hang out a little.

So I do.

Once I get in just a little but its like nothing else, it starts to come so much easier and the buzzing goes away and all of a sudden im almost somewhere else, in another whole universe and my whole being is filling with this signal like a tap of pure water on a hot dry day so refreshing and nice, man it just hits! Like a giant gong, the one and only thing the note just hitting and ringing out can’t you hear that? Man it’s so sweet.

There was something stirring inside me, I realize. Just a little discontent just kind of sitting there, fucking with me, looking at me really hard daring me to see it it was right there the whole time so the minor chords come out and the blues scale is finding my fingers and that little bit of bad is just creaking on out its blood on the strings, how could I not see it? It was right there the whole time, maybe I didn’t want to see it? No that was last time this time I just… I just missed it. I was busy there are so many things to do and so little time and I wasn’t tuned in-

I wasn’t tuned in.

to the signal.

Now I’m getting there; I’m straightening out like an antenna its reaching up and its catching it it’s practically screaming to me now its pulling in everything everywhere its all at once and it’s good and it’s all there for me and I’m folding into it I can hardly see straight now but it’s right there its so obvious it’s so real.

Its humming so loud and its radiating from within me and reaching out all into this room and touching everything all at once and getting behind the pictures and into the cracks and sliding into the dark spaces right into the black it’s just filling everything all together and its oozing into me and all my spots all my head is so full and my stomach is warm and my balls are vibrating and my toes are curling and I can’t even contain it so it just keeps coming out and getting everywhere and

its

so

orange

its so fucking orange its glowing like a hot blacksmiths fire and its loud but it isn’t harsh its sweet and purrs but in a sweet way and all the time its saying be with me be part of me plug into me

so I do.

And time goes by and the sensation fades and it’s still nice but it’s much more calm around here now. There’s a contented-ness now and an awareness of everything else settles in slowly. There’s no need to hurry.

The only thing separating me from anything is time and time is only an idea I’m getting better at.

This is why I love my Stratocaster.