I grew up in Los Angeles. One October day, my father took me to see the LA Philharmonic play at Pauley Pavilion. I was ten years old. After the "boring grown-up" music ended, a magical thing happened: The stage was cleared of all the instruments, and a young woman came onto the stage, carrying a guitar. She sat in the centre of the enormous stage on a tall stool. There was also a piano, off to her right. She had long blonde hair, and looked very beautiful and fragile. I remember thinking that it must be taking a lot of courage to be up on that stage all alone.

Joni sang "Michael from Mountains," "Ladies of the Canyon" and others songs -- I no longer remember precisely which ones. (I am in my fifties now, and my memories are hazy...). She moved between the stool and the piano, and back again. Her voice was a high soprano, and the most beautiful, angelic thing I could imagine. I don't know how long her concert lasted, but in those minutes or hours my life was changed forever. In that short time I realized that a whole world was out there, of beauty and grace and adventure and that it was all there for me to grab hold of and embrace. I was transfixed, awed, and transformed. I became a life-long fan.

Not long after that, a friend who worked in the music industry gave my father a bunch of record albums. They weren't his kind of music, so he gave them to me. Amongst this treasure trove was Joni's "Ladies of the Canyon", as well as James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" and Neil Young's "After the Goldrush". I wore those albums out on my little record player. I think I probably still have them somewhere. I was much too young to be buying my own records at that time, and I didn't have older siblings to introduce me to music, so these two magical coincidences (the Pauley Pavilion concert and the gift of the record albums) allowed me to get to know Joni's earliest music when I was still very young. I am so grateful for these life-changing events - they gave me my life.

P.S. Joni, I don't know if you read these posts, but I want you to know, my mother and my younger sister have both suffered from Morgellons. Amazingly, they got better, and they are now living happy and fulfilling lives. I never would have believed it when they were ill, but it is possible to get better. I wish the same for you every day and hope you will take heart from this.