James Taylor -- "Caroline I See You" (2002)

Standing on the stairway

Caroline, I see you

Every time I look at the photographs below, it all comes back to me.

The weekend my daughter Caroline was married on Cape Cod was impossibly perfect -- it was unseasonably warm and calm, and I've never seen a more cloudless and brilliantly blue sky.  The light had a quality I can't hope to describe.

The day before the ceremony

I wasn't as emotional as I expected to be the day of the wedding.   Maybe there were so many people around and so much going on that I had no choice but to focus on the present.

A pre-wedding snack

But twenty-four hours after my daughter Caroline was married  -- after she and her husband had departed on their honeymoon, and after my other children had gone home -- the dam burst.  While I was walking from the house where I was staying to Corporation Beach, I was simply overwhelmed by joy. 

Gilding the lily

It was an unprecedented carpe diem moment for me.  At least as far as my conscious mind was concerned, I was truly in that moment.

Caroline and her husband, Max

When I got to the beach around 6 o'clock that evening, there were several other people there, all waiting for the sun to set.  I pulled out my Blackberry and took photo after photo -- several dozen, at least.

Maybe I was trying to slow time down by concentrating all my attention on that sunset.  

Time does seem to slow down perceptibly when you watch a sunset.  But it doesn't stop.

I didn't want the sun to set, and I didn't want that weekend to end -- but the sun did set, and I had to return to my "real" life the next morning.

I don't think I'll ever really understand what made me feel the way I felt that weekend.  But I'll never forget that feeling.

There's a lot more I could say about that weekend.  But if I can't explain what was going on in my mind and my heart to myself, how can I hope to articulate it to you?

Or maybe I'm just greedy.  Maybe I'm afraid that if I share too more, there won't be as much left for me.

Caroline's bridal bouquet

"Caroline I See You" was released in 2002 on James Taylor's 15th studio album, October Road.

James Taylor's wife is named Caroline, and I assume that this song was inspired by her.

Here's "Caroline I See You":

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