Universally, people of all ages relate to music. Music makes us want to dance and sing, and recalls memories to our minds – some happy, some sad – but always seeming to shed light on simple truths in our lives.
Sometimes songs can even take us back to a particular moment in time, and it’s like we are there, living it all over again. Maybe you are on a family road trip, 16 and driving your car too fast, with your first love or even saying your final goodbyes.
Music has the ability to draw us back, by making us feel exactly as we did then.
Days and moments pass us by all the time. It becomes easy to not fully appreciate what you have until it’s gone. And sometimes, we don’t even realize the significance of a moment until later in life.
My dad is no longer here, and yet I think about him all the time. It’s beginning to get harder to remember the sound of his voice. In fact, it’s funny, but it seems I can recollect it best in memories of him singing to me as I would go to sleep as a child.
I can still see him sitting on the edge of my bed and singing “Turn Around” by Malvina Reynolds. He knew at the time that childhood is a fleeting treasure we must cherish.
And though he told me over and over, it took growing up for me to finally understand that time passes far too quickly. The older you get, the faster it seems to go. I guess because when you are three, a year is 1/3 of your life. When you are older, a year can pass and it feels like you just blinked your eyes.
There are certain moments in time I would like to freeze or lengthen, because even as I am living them, I know they are important, wonderful moments I can never get back again. And while this is not possible, love is the one thing that can withstand time. And memories of love never seem to fade.
While I will never be able to remember every single thing we did together, I will always know that my dad was there for me – cheering me on at every turn, loving me in spite of my flaws, and forever singing away my worries and fears (and the monsters of the night).
The moments you have with your children now, are creating the memories they will hold on to forever.
I’ve turned around, and now and I am suddenly grown up with two kids of my own, and my dad is not here to see it. He never got to meet my children, but I know he is here, in my heart. And every time I sing to my boys, I think about him.
My eyes swell with tears when I hear little voices up in their room singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, because it’s like my dad is up there singing right along with them. His love – now my love – lives on.
