Day 14 - Music

Well I’m totally slacking!  I fell asleep typing last night and never posted this.  😴 

I’m thankful for music.  It fills our days with melodies and songs.  It can make me cry and make me laugh.  It’s often in the background, seemingly unnoticed, but still setting the mood so completely.  I love the Christmas music that plays in the stores this time of year.  Sure, I know they play it to put everyone in the mood to Christmas shop (and spend money).  But I love it for the happiness that it makes me feel, the nostalgia, the excitement of the season.  

I love how when you hear a song, it can remind you of a person.  I cannot hear ‘Unforgettable” by Natalie and Nat King Cole without thinking of my Grandpa Bud.  When I listen to the song “The Love of My Life” by Carly Simon, I remember being in the car with my mom when I was a kid.  We had just come from the mall and she played the song for me.  She told me that when she heard it, it made her think of her kids and how much she loved us.  I’ve never forgotten how wonderful that made me feel and I love that I can share it with my kids now.  I will never hear a song by Dan Fogelberg without thinking of my dad.  It brings to mind memories of him standing over a press at the print shop, tinkering with something.  It also makes me think of Sunday mornings growing up.  He would put on his records every Sunday growing up while he or my mom made breakfast and read the paper.  When I hear the song “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra, I think of Pat and our wedding.  Funnily enough, it’s not the song that played during our first dance.  That was “It Had to Be You” by Harry Connick Jr.   But when I hear ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, I can picture us dancing.  It brings back so many memories of that day and how happy and excited we were.  It also makes me think of how far we’ve come and how even though almost 7 years have passed, I’m still so happy that we are together.

These days, the music sounds a little different in our house.  We listen to a lot more Disney than rock.  :)  Evelyn loves Kids Bop and she’s been known to sing along to the pop songs by Taylor Swift and Katy Perry on the radio.  Mitch loves to belt out “I’ve been working on the railroad” in a strange, countrified voice.  The kids and I love to crank up the music at home and have dance parties.  But I can remember a time, not so very long ago, when I swayed with them in my arms to “When You Wish Upon a Star”. 

Time passes so quickly, but music can connect us to any time and place.