Crossing Thresholds

Life, Music and Health

Singer songwriter Bryan Matthews aka The Rayne with Ruth and Joe on their visit to England last week. The Rayne sang, recorded and released two songs inspired by Ruth: ‘Every Moment’, conceived by Joe days after proposing to Ruth, and ‘So Glad I Married You’, released around their 31st wedding anniversary this summer. It was the first time Bryan met Joe and Ruth in person.

A Dawning Realization

I need to write. I've crossed a threshold. It happened yesterday, during a brief three-mile drive. I bought something, read the instructions, and knew that I was entering a new phase of my life.

‘I’ve crossed a threshold. It happened yesterday during a brief three-mile drive.’ Photo by Damian Kamp on Unsplash

A Journey Across England

Ruth and I are just back from a 10-day holiday in England. We met relatives and friends, old and new. We travelled from Dublin to Holyhead, then to Southport, Leeds, and Henley-on-Thames. Afterward, we went to Guildford, returned to Henley, travelled down to Devon, up to Bath, back to Henley again, and then onwards to Birmingham.

Route of our journey through England last week, visiting relatives and friends, old and new

Finally, we took the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin on a very calm crossing and headed home.

An Unwelcome Homecoming

Last Saturday at 2 a.m., we arrived home to find our kitchen and back hall flooded, with water spurting out from under the sink. Dying to sleep, we had no choice but to take immediate action—turning off the water and mopping up the mess.

Dealing with the Aftermath

After a few hours’ sleep, we pulled up the lino and removed the bottom panels from kitchen cabinets.

Taking up the lino, we worried that the water probably flowed underneath the wooden flooring in the hall and front rooms, as it flooded the back hall from underneath the door saddle.

We worried that water may have seeped under the gorgeous wooden flooring in the front rooms and hall, as it flooded the back hall under the door saddle. By today, Tuesday, we’ve had the central heating on a lot, hoping it would dry out any moisture beneath the wooden floors.

Our insurers have been helpful. They sent out an obliging plumber to fix the leak. An assessor will look at the damage next Monday.

But, however distressing, that wasn’t lifechanging. It didn’t occasion my three-mile drive.

A Wonderful Collaboration

Last Sunday night, we’d a wonderful songwriting session with The Rayne, Andrea Patron and Zac Ware, guitarist with The Proclaimers.

Joe and Ruth visited Zac at his UK recording studio last week.

It’s a sheer joy to work with these guys. They have such skill and knowledge of music. And we work so well together.

We’re finalizing a song that we began at least two years ago. It will be out before Christmas!

While collaborating in songwriting, I don’t feel any ‘imposter syndrome’. Had my mind and life not been hijacked by religion when I was young, I think I would have spent my life in music, writing songs.

But the only life any of us ever have is now. So, today, I’m so happy to be creating music with Andrea, Zac, The Rayne and others.

A New Phase Begins

So what was all that about my short drive entering a new phase of my life?

My dad died aged 62 from a massive stroke. I’m now 62. So I thought it prudent to have a checkup. While I’m in pretty good nick, a cardiologist suggested I do an echo test and a stress test, emerging out of which he said I had a ‘beautiful heart’.

Wow! That was cool.

However, he also suggested it would be prudent to have a CT scan. I did one, feeling this was probably one test too many.

While on holidays, the cardiologist rang having received the results of the CT scan. He said I needed to go on statins and aspirin ‘immediately’ upon our return to Ireland and he was arranging for me to have an angiogram.

From ‘beautiful heart’ to ‘immediately’ was a jolt. On speaker phone in the car, my wife was part of the conversation, reinforcing his dietary exhortations, such as no butter (which I tend to avoid anyway), to avoid eggs, and to eat red meat no more than twice a week.

Facing Reality

Alone in my car yesterday, I read on the information leaflet for aspirin: ‘Do NOT drink alcohol whilst taking this medicine.’

I presume I’m on aspirin for the rest of my life. The cardiologist’s prescription covers the next year.

Earlier this year, I chose to avoid alcohol for several months as a creative stimulus to progressing the audiobook of my second memoir. I had been considering reverting to that decision in any case.

But reading the unambiguous warning on the aspirin information leaflet seemed to hammer home to me that I was beginning a new phase of my life: the end of middle age.

Looking Ahead

Love, friendship and health are all we need in the end. Photo by photo nic on Unsplash

At 62, the chances are, if you’re lucky, you could have a good 20 years left in you. If you’re unlucky, a minute or a second!

I thought of my father, lying in hospital in 1981 after his massive stroke. He would happily have traded his bedbound, face-sunken, unable-to-speak final weeks, for a further 20 years on aspirin and statins and alcohol-free.

If I can do that—with my wonderful wife, friends, and writing songs—I’ll be happy!

Happy days,

Joe

Have a listen on Spotify or YouTube to So Glad I Married You, sung by The Rayne.

Listen to Every Moment, sung by The Rayne.

Joe’s acclaimed first memoir In My Gut, I Don’t Believe is available on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, Hardback and Audible editions. His second memoir Saved by a Woman is available on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardback editions.

You can listen to fascinating questions about godlessness at the launch of the first memoir on the Losing My Religion Podcast or watch it on YouTube. And there’s more at the launch of Saved by a Woman on the Losing My Religion Podcast or the Joe the Human post and Podcast.