Music To My Ears

In a box the other day, I found a CD that my daughter, Stephanie, made for me in 2001. It is entitled “Our Music”. Music that either evoked vivid memories of her childhood, growing up, or symbolized life lessons that she had learned raised with two sisters by a single mother.

I put the CD in the player. At first the music took me back to those days when I was both Mother and Father to my children. For just a second, I thought about the financial struggle, creating a business that would provide for us, the dating…….(kissing many frogs in the process), and the limited time I had with my daughters. All the while, trying to instill values, self-esteem, confidence and trying to bring each daughter’s special talents and gifts to the surface.

At the time, I felt like I was spread too thin and I didn’t have the time to do anything right. Much of the time I felt like the Linus character in the Peanuts comics, my voice sounding like, “wah, wah, wah”; nobody listening to what I was saying, believing or teaching.

As I listened to the music and the lyrics, it became validation that my daughter, who was 23 at the time, had listened, had believed and had become all and more than my dreams for her. I cried through every song.

Single mothers out there, don’t get discouraged, don’t stop talking, teaching or mirroring. They hear you. You are the single most important person in their lives. Who they become will be a direct result of who YOU are. Make the best of it.

Playlist

1. I Love You Just The Way You Are ~ “I said I love you and that's forever and this I promise from the heart. I could not love you any better I love you just the way you are.”

2. I Can Do That! ~ “I'm watchin' Sis go pitterpat…. Said, "I can do that, I can do that."Knew ev'ry step right off the bat….Said, "I can do that, I can do that."

3. Stray Cat Strut ~ “ I’m flat broke but I don’t care, I strut right by with my tail in the air.”

4. It’s a Hard Knock Life BUT The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow (Stephanie played Molly in a production of Annie when she was 6 years old.)

5. The Greatest Love of All ~ “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

6. The Rainbow Connection ~ “I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it, there’s something that I’m supposed to be. Someday we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me.”

7. Angels Among Us ~ “I believe there are angels among us, sent down to us from somewhere up above. They come to you and me in our darkest hours to show us how to live, to teach us how to give, to guide us with their light of love.”

8. In The Living Years ~ “Say it loud, say it clear you can listen as well as you hear.”

9. Here, There and Everywhere ~ “Each one believing that love never dies, watching their eyes and hoping I’m always there….”

10. The Wind Beneath My Wings ~ “I can fly high as an Eagle….cause you are the wind beneath my wings.”