The Shadow of Your Smile

Memories don't belong to youth -- they aren't old enough to have many. It's only as the decades pass that we begin to treasure what we have chosen to put into our lives. Today I remembered that summer afternoon on the grass chatting with a boy just a year older than I. The sun was on his bare chest and he smelled so good. Most of the details have slipped out of reach, but what remains is that "shadow of his smile".

Here is George Shearing's piano solo played with the tenderness of maturity.