I'll Meet You Halfway

One of Bellingham's most endearing qualities is its close-knit community, particularly within its music circles. If you live here long enough, you'll quickly get to know many of the talented musicians, singers, and songwriters in this artistically and musically rich town.

TR Ritchie, originally from western Kansas, is a Bellingham poet/singer/songwriter by way of Seattle. In mid-December, TR was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and tonight, the Bellingham community, along with many of TR's friends from all around the country, some coming from as far as North Carolina, came together to put on a Benefit Concert in his honor (pictured above, Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd singing Converging Into One) The proceeds from tonight's full-house concert will go towards defraying some of his medical and living expenses.

Each performer selected their favorite TR Ritchie song to perform and what a wealth of talent we saw and heard this evening, full with tender guitar strumming, clever lyrics, and gutsy deliveries. My favorite number was Ritchie's song, I'll Meet You Halfway, beautifully performed tonight by Belinda Bowler. Here are the words:

I'll meet you halfway, somewhere in the night
Look for me just past the moon, second star to the right
I'll meet you halfway, in a dream we are having somewhere
And the two of us can go dancing
Among all our wishes and prayers

I'll meet you halfway and you'll know who I am
I'll be the one with that look in his eye
The one with his heart in his hand
I'll wear my favorite colors
You wear your favorite shoes
We can waltz to the edge of the night
And watch tomorrow come through

Oh, the sky is tied up with an indigo ribbon
The sun has gone down in flames
If we listen as hard as we can
We might hear the stars singing our names

I'll meet you halfway
Just call if you think you'll be late
There's noplace that I have to be
And I don't really mind the wait
I'll meet you halfway
Come just as soon as you're free
I've already saved you this dance
And time means nothing to me