The Most Important Day

I guess the most important days of my life Are usually the beginnings and the endings The beginnings of projects are always the most fun And exciting Starting off a new tour Starting of making a new album The writing of something The creating of a new project Those are the most exciting And the ending of those same projects Are usually poignant And all the projects that I’ve been so fortunate to be part of From tours, to records, to CDs and books, To all these wonderful projects Have been incredibly rewarding In one way or another But I think when I look back at my career and My life, I think the most important days for me Were probably the days where I found myself Up against insurmountable odds And even though I was terrified and I feared That the worst would happen I found some kind of a strength To go through my fear And those when I look back Those are the moments That I’m the most grateful for Leaving City College to go in midstream to enroll in The New York City College of Music When I had no idea whether I would make it in And make it and if I didn’t make it, I would have passed I would have lost the opportunity to go back to City College But somehow I just did it Excepting, insisting I conduct for my first off Broadway show Never having ever done it before And knowing that I could easily fail Those are such important days I look back on I can’t believe I had the courage or the mocksy to do it But I did and I’m grateful for the strength I don’t know where I possibly could have gotten that Same thing with insisting that I produce my friend, Bette Midler’s first album I just knew that I could do a better job for her than anybody in the world Even though I’ve never done it before Something just told me that I was the only one that could do this Having the courage to pick up the phone and call my hero, Jerry Mulligan Although I have never spoken to him before or Sara Vaughan or Mel Torme And do that wonderful life changing Paradise Café album still amazes me Having the courage to insist that I go out and perform my few songs when I needed to In order to promote my first album that amazes me, too But those were important days And these are days that I look back on and I’m grateful for the strength that I found somehow to do it I think also some of these important days are days that I dread the most When I look into the future, and I see them coming, and I say, ‘’Oh God! This is gonna be awful! But I once I’m done with it, I look back on those days and I’m grateful for them because they are again life changing.’’ For instance, I always knew my mother was going to die and I dreaded that moment, I dreaded that moment and the day she became ill and went into the hospital, I dreaded the whole experience, but it was a life-altering experience for me as horrible as it was and as terrible as it was to go through it was a life-altering experience for me to go through those hours at her bedside because what happened there was so profound that I will never be the same and having gone through it, I feel that I’m a better person for it.