Paul Coleman

Recently I wrote of the healing energy of laughter in relation to my chemotherapy treatment. So here I am, laughing my head off with my friend Paul Sihon on the recording of Ouiee Ouiee We're Happy, a song I wrote thirty-two years ago while living inside the trunk of a gigantic Redwood tree in Marin County, California. We recorded it on the Island of Okinawa in 2005.

We've just come home from my second chemotherapy session, and I was feeling physically and mentally stressed. The first thing I did was get the fire going. Then I had hot Vitamin C drinks, warmed up, switched on the computer, and have since then been laughing my head off watching videos of Michael Parkinson interviewing Billy Connelly, his wife Pamela Stevenson, David Attenborough, and Tom Cruise. My sore throat and sore stomach are gone and my stress is fading to a distant memory.

Glad To Be Alive', is one of four songs composed for the Kingfisher and The Tiki, a story I wrote on the island of Kauai in 1995 that speaks of a greedy bird that eats a magical fish. The story explains how the Marine Environment, from the forested mountains to the coral reefs, is interconnected through a harmonious cycle of life.