He no longer lives entirely among us

And yet, he lives.

The title of this blog is also the title of a song by Antennacle, the sound ensemble Rick was in with Nathan Martin and Eric Wood. For Rick, a lot of what he did in Antennacle was about participating in an ensemble setting, while ensuring that each contributor had a clear voice. The goal was to create something beautiful, to listen, to force the listeners to go somewhere new. Rick took each sound so seriously- every note, drone, buzz and blip had to mean something. I never necessarily understood every single part, but always felt moved by what he created.

In a similar spirit of cooperation and creation, a dear friend of ours, Emily Hope Price has embarked on a journey of her own- to create 365 pieces of music in 365 days. Emily is an accomplished cellist and was a student in one of Rick's sound art classes at Carnegie Mellon University many moons ago. She is also a first class lady and a joy to be around. To launch her ambitious project, she revived an old collaboration with my departed husband, and created a new beautiful piece of work that you can listen to on her blog, The 365 Project.

The piece itself is short and perfect, it does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more. At the very end, you can hear Rick's voice. When Emily shared this clip with me over the weekend, it was the first time I had heard my husband's voice since he died. It brought tears to my eyes. Not only at the sound of it, but at the simple beauty of the words he says. “I get you. I guess I was just trying to listen.” A reminder, a lesson, from a young man so wise beyond his years.

If you listen, he lives among us. Not entirely, but he is here, as he knew he would be.