I have been saving this song. It might be the best one on my new album, Surrender to Love, which is available today for the first time in its entirety. The album is a collection of love songs, most of them about Nancy, but this one is about another woman I love. She died a few months after I wrote this song but before she did she left me with a lifetime of unconditional love.

My mom was unhappy at the end of her life. It is easy to be unhappy when the world doesn’t make sense. When she got to the point where she knew her life would never be good again, she stopped fearing death. Instead, she looked for the arms of heaven to open wide and take her inside forever.

This song features my brother-from-another-mother Matt Kennon on guitar and vocals, with this album’s usual stalwart rhythm section of Julie Rozansky on bass and vocals, and Chris DeRosa on drums.

Now I know why nobody dies
In the arms of heaven
We’re just here as long as we’re
Supposed to be

When my time comes then I’m
Looking for the arms of heaven
To open wide and take me inside
Forever

When death comes it’s like the sun’s
Rising to end the night
And it shines till it blinds us
With its light

When death comes you’ll hear the drums
You’ll hear everything in harmony
Or you’ll find a way to pass the days
So the days don’t pass you by

All that you were that’s just a blur
When you’re in the arms of heaven
You can feel what you thought was real
Baby, that was just a dream

But now you’re awake so they can take you
Into the arms of heaven
They’ll open wide and take us inside
Forever

When death comes it’s like the sun’s
Rising to end the night
And it shines till it blinds us
With its light

When death comes you’ll hear the drums
You’ll hear everything in harmony
Or you’ll find a way to pass the days
So the days don’t pass you by

You’ll find a way to pass the days
So the days don’t pass you by
You’ll find a way to pass the days
So the days don’t pass you by