My Year Of Gratitude-Music Tells My Story

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America.  Music has always been a big part of my life.  There was always music coming from the stereo in my parents living room.  They listened to the Beatles, Elvis, The Platters, and Connie Frances just to name a few.  My Mom had a nice record collection filled with 50's and 60's music.  Pop, rock and country-they listened to it all.

I still have my first album!!

That love of music rubbed off on their daughter.  The first album I ever owned was ( promise not to laugh!)  Donny Osmond My Best To You.  I saved my money and bought that record at the age of 8.  Somehow Puppy Love spoke to me!  More like I dreamed of Donny singing that song just for me!    When Donny's sister Marie put out Paper Roses I bought that album too and promptly spent countless hours singing along into my hairbrush.  Soon I joined the Columbia record club and had albums sent right to my house.  I ordered my first stereo for my bedroom from the mail and the day it arrived I was so excited.  We had a snowstorm that day and I begged my Dad to take me to the trucking warehouse to pick it up!  After that I didn't come out of my room almost all my teenage years! I diligently spent every Sunday afternoon locked in my room listening to Casey Kasum's American Top Forty and obsessively recording in notebooks all 40 songs every week.

Music is the universal language.  No matter what I was going through, music always made me feel better.  Through music I could somehow, through listening, express how I felt. The words, the melodies brought out so many emotions I could not express.

Another music habit I had was falling asleep every night to the radio. I only stopped years later when my hubby didn't appreciate this habit so much.  Sometimes you have to make a sacrifice.

I still love music.  I've been a fan of pop, punk, new wave, disco, rock, classical, and alternative music.  Donna Summer, Queen, Pat Benetar, Garbage,  INXS, The Cars, The Partridge Family, Alanis Morissette, Radiohead, they are all on my play list.  Of course no band speaks to me as much as my favorite band U2.  The boys make up about 70% of my playlist. Plus there is nothing like going to see your favorite band live.  The electricity in the air when you hear those songs you love live can be transforming.



So music has always been a big part of my life. Music has always been there for me when circumstances in life have let me down. When I'm happy, well there's a song for that too.

I am grateful that music is a big part of my life.

In Celebration of Parents and Grandparents-My Year of Graditude



Myself, Mom, Dad, my daughter Megan

I'm lucky enough to still have both my parents with me.  They live only 3 miles from me, but yet if I see them every couple of weeks or so that's about it.  my Mom especially has always had the philosophy that she wanted to stay out of her kids lives and if we needed her, we knew where to come to.  I depended on them a lot when our daughter was young.  My Mom took care of her from the time she was 5 and going to pre-school until she was old enough to be on her own.  Besides us my parents were the ones who were with her the most.  She has that special bond with them that every Grandchild should have with their Grandparents.  I certainly had it with my Grandmother, who has been gone for many years now, but I think of her almost everyday and miss her terribly.  Some of my most precious childhood memories were of spending time in the summer staying at her house.  I can still see her sitting at the kitchen table in her apron teaching me how to macramé, or embroider, or letting me play with her jewelry. As Grandmas go, she was a perfect one in my eyes.

Sunday I had my parents over for dinner.  It was my Dad's birthday during the week and We decided to make dinner and have them over.  After dinner we sat at the table talking about my Dad's Mom who is in her 90's and living in an assisted living facility. Its not often I can get my parents to talk about the past, they tend to not share stories as easily as other families do, but on this day they shared a few about my Grandpa and Great Grandpa.  My Grandpa died from cancer when I was a toddler, so the only recollection I have of him is from old 8MM film.  My Mom said how my Great Grandpa used to come over everyday to get a peak at me when I was a baby.

At times I have to remind myself that my parents will not be around forever.  I did not always have the best relationship with them.  I know for a fact they will tell you I wasn't the perfect child. We probably had a pretty normal family life.  We were lucky in that as a family we did so many things together.  Snowmobile, camp. fish, going on yearly vacations, my parents saw to it that we had a good life.

So in my year of gratitude, I am first celebrating my parents and grandparents.  Our parents shape us into what we become as adults.  Grandparents are the ones who have the patience to teach us all kinds of things and love us even when we don't clean our rooms.

And I am grateful for them all.....