Thursday, August 23, 2012

Rock 'n' Roll Mermaid

There's a girl that many say could have been a mermaid in a past life. She's happiest when near any body of water, but her preferred choice is the ocean. It calms and rejuvenates her in a way that nothing else seems to. The other night though, she was reminded that there is something else that fuels her soul - live music. She remembers her first concert ever...Billy Joel, freshman year of high school. From there on she was hooked. She now has a ticket stub collection that could rival the beach treasures collection. Over a span of 30 years there have been many late nights of music. All kinds too.  To name them all would be impossible. Many acts have been seen for free and multiple times due to an old friend with the right connections! So what is it about a live concert that makes the mermaid want to temporarily trade in her tail for some dancing feet?  Sure, part of it is the raw musical talent that she'll never have. The heart stopping beat of the drums, the guitar rips, and the vocal magic she only pretends to have in the shower. But the other night while waiting for the band to take stage she thought of this....You enter this arena, and for a few hours you get to let go and just not think about anything except the messages that are being passed on in song. The words that songwriters have painstakingly written that for whatever reason just hit you and stick. For this mermaid it's a little piece of magic.



Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Love You The Mostest

Love you the mostest....it's what Niece #2 says to me at the end of each of our phone calls. She lives 500 miles away and I've never gone more than probably three days without talking to she and her sister. This summer the two of them went another 500 miles further away to the woods of Tennessee for camp. I hadn't heard those sweet words for 31 agonizing long days, until last night at precisely 10:02 p.m. I couldn't even talk, I just wanted to listen to their voices that I missed so much. Exhausted as they were, both went on and on about all the fabulous experiences they had and I just soaked it all in. The call ended with the words I love to hear and I slept soundly. All is right in universe again.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Curveballs

I have to work at throwing open the window to the unexpected. In the past month life has thrown me three curveballs. One was a bit expected, but that's not to say it still didn't sting a little. The other two, completely out of nowhere. I know we don't always get what we want, but I'd like to think that we always get what is right for us. These curveballs of life may make us duck or dodge, altering the game plan a little bit along the way. I guess in doing so we get to see things a little differently. You're forced to keep your eyes open to find the gems along the challenging pathway of life. And when all else fails, as my cousin told me the other day.... "you rely on the strength, grace and faith that your grandmother passed on!"

Expect to get sucked into the river of life without a paddle occasionally and maybe even get tossed out of the canoe. Learn to swim and go with the flow.