Grade one. Half way through grade one, the starting point of a lot of things. It's basically the start of grade school and the forming years for a young child's life, such as mine. It was then that all the major transitions started happening in my life. The transitions were happening all around me as well. The darkness of winter could powerfully be heard in the foreground. Winter was strong that year; it had an assurance that had never been felt by a city child. But things this far north were different, everything seemed more intense and harsh, yet beautiful in their own unique way.

The Move. Moving at a young age awoke awareness in me that I still maintain to this day. We moved to escape, to run, to find new, and that's exactly what the outcome was. We took most of our old belongings and made them new, inside a new home, with a new fence and new neighbors. Things were allowed to start new; no past judgments could hold us back. I remember the feeling of that house, and I remember how the strength and power of the novelty never faded over the 10 years of living there. The new house had the perfect blend of old and new. The house contained the old which was most important and worth holding on to, and the new that was luxury; like the pool.

The Pool. In any moving situation; words of magic, your typical bribing chip. Mother says calmly with such confidence "the new house has a pool". The pool or any open water situation is a place of trust and a place where life long friends are made. For me our pool acted as a place to drown old memories and unwanted thoughts, a place to cure fevers and to resurface anew.

The Reason's newest album "Ravenna" is the new house, with the new pool; they are a place to hide, to keep your own or to share at the top of your lungs while plunging head first into the deep end. The newest offering "Ravenna" takes you through "the move", they bring along your old favorite toys and boxes of memories, and add the new flat screen and games room that your old house couldn't fit.