This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Tips for Life's Truths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Last night I had the pleasure of spending an intimate evening with JT (James Taylor) at the Spokane Arena. Of course, I shared him with 7 or 8,000 other people, but I am convinced he was singing to me. All the tunes I grew up with, all the tunes which spoke of love and activism and of caring. What a night. The arena was filled with positive energy and good juju…
One favorite tune about love, and showering the people we love with love stayed with me long after the ride home. Knowing that love is an ever abundant commodity, meant to be dispersed liberally and freely. Love is not limited to a little bag…it is not limited to discrete amounts. So, if I give love to one of my friends, my other friends do not suffer. No, it’s like that generoisty of spirit is contagious. Stingy people need not apply.
As my girls were growing up, they often tired of JT on the music player in the car, cassette tapes, cds, whatever form…they got sick of JT. But, “Mom” got her way when traveling. The girls got to listen to their music on the way to an adventure, and Mom got to listen to her music coming home…usually because Mom was frazzled and worn out. Music to soothe the soul (no offense Cindy Lauper).
Last Thanksgiving, we had an all-girl Thanksgiving at Jess’s new home in Denver. Imagine the surprise experienced by Jess, Maggie and me when the offer of playing JT was greeted with a resounding “yes” even from the littlest sister, Lindsey. Shock and amazement. Had Lindsey joined the JT fan club….FINALLY?
Jess cranked up the music in the kitchen while food was being prepared. Happiness filled the room.
I glanced over at Linds as did the other girls. Linds looked pretty confused. Suddenly Lindsey announced, “Hey, that’s not Justin Timberlake…”
More serious stuff later.
Smooch…share the love.
Beth
read comments (4)
October 30th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Glad to know that you enjoyed the concert so much. The historical place that James Taylor’s music has had in your life as well as the impact on your girls is very touching. In many ways you are a very lucky woman.
October 30th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Two years ago I would not have been able to identify with being “lucky”…I sort of felt “marked.” That victim mentality stayed with me for a while. I think once realizing how easily it was to slip into that kind of dysfunctional thinking I needed to make serious changes…hence, coaching, blogging, Happiness Boot Camp. All these efforts are an attempt to “prove” that it is not what happens to us, but how we manage what happens to us. It never is the event as much as it is our reaction to the event that reveals character.
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:56 pm
How different do you think your reactions would have been if you had lost your spouse from a prolonged progressive disease process.? Do you think that you would have been able to make so many positive changes in such a relatively short period of time? I still believe that you are not only lucky but your background in helping others eased your transition into this different, but more positive area.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I don’t know about how different a prolonged process would be, JC. I lost my mother to Shy-Drager Syndrome–a particularly virulent form of Parkinson’s–so she declined for about seven years between diagnosis and death. That time gave us–my sister, Dad, and me–time to come to terms with the inevitable outcome, time to do right by Mom, time to be sure we’d be there for each other, and so on. Nothing really prepared us for the devastation we felt when my Mom died, but we were, in a sense, prepared. We had left nothing unsaid or undone that we needed to say to or do for Mom. No regrets. I think if she’d died suddenly, we’d have had a lot of regrets, and we would not have forged the strong bonds together that are still, after three years, keeping us close, keeping us important to each other. It was heartbreaking to see my mother’s decline, and I acknowledge that if she’d died suddenly we would not have had to go through that. But on the whole, I’d prefer the lingering to the sudden shock. I’d rather be as prepared as one can be, rather than have to deal with an important loss as a shock.