Email from The Beat Goes On

ADMIRATION and GRATITUDE

5/14/23 + No. 3

A song for my Mom

This will be my first Mother's Day without my mother. She passed away peacefully this past December at 92, surrounded by her family in the home she built in 1954. There are great books, songs, artwork, and poems, all written about mothers, that are inspirational, time-tested, and amazing. Yet none of them can aptly describe my mother, Annette Ford, as I knew her.

It's daunting to consider writing a song about how much I admired her and what she meant to me and my siblings. I found and rewrote a poem that I composed for her last fall. The words were inspired by a drawing my brother Dave created. Our Westport, Mass. home borders a beautiful forest with a fantastic rock wall separating our house from the woods. Dave's wonderful drawing depicted Mom's chair in front of the wall. This past February, I found a melody and chords that complemented the poem.

My Mom was a pianist, vocalist, and violinist, and she shared her incredible love of music with me and my sisters and brothers. With much gratitude, it is a blessing to share this song to honor my Mom and all mothers, especially my wife Nanette and my daughters Amy and Melissa. Happy Mother's Day, Mom; this song is for you.

SONG OF THE WEEK: "Going home" LINK

Going Home

A long and hero’s journey,

to the future from the past.

Sharing stories of your faith,

and memories that last. 2x

You Sower of seeds and dreams,

watching us grow and grow.

Love was all that we needed,

love was what we would know. 2x

From this place, oh holy ground,

we set off on our own.

To the hills so high, and valleys so low,

yet we all came home. 2x

You woman of wisdom and gentle ways,

back to your place by the woods.

Memories of rock walls and happy children,

heaven, our neighborhood. 2x

Time to reflect and time to be grateful, and like the walls made of stone.

You built your life one day at a time and finally you are home! 3x

SONG NOTE: Bell is from the Plum Village App, a wonderful resource for meditation. LINK

MUSIC FOR "GOING HOME: LINK

A FEW GOOD QUOTES:

"A mother's love liberates." - Maya Angelou

“Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

“There are really places in your heart that you don’t know exist until you love a child.” - Anne Lamott

"Life doesn't come with a manual. It comes with a mother." - Unknown

A GOOD SONG: "Loves me like a Rock" by Paul Simon. LINK

Oh, my mama loves me, she loves me

She get down on her knees and hug me

Oh, she loves me like a rock

She rocks me like the rock of ages

And she loves me

A FEW GOOD VIDEOS:

For All You Do: A Mother's Day Tribute LINK

The Rock Walls of New England LINK

A FEW GOOD POEMS:

My Memories Live in my Mother’s Phone

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Her dress shimmered tiny pink and green flower gardens

like a tablecloth in a rural twentieth century

American farmhouse, something tender

you never saw since you were a child too,

pleats and folds along the bodice,

tucks and stitchery made with a patience

that barely abides anymore, her hair tightly braided

and coiled in circles against her perfect head

with tiny red ribbons at elegant intervals,

but when you said, Memories, her face fell.

She whispered, we left them, we had to

leave everything in our house,

my cabinet, my doll, my books,

my pepper plant, my pillow.

Nothing now we knew before.

But we have a few pictures.

My memories live in my mother’s phone.

HOME

by Carl Sandburg

Here is a thing my heart wishes the world had more of:

I heard it in the air of one night when I listened

To a mother singing softly to a child restless and angry in the darkness.

Carl Sandburg BIO LINK

Mother to Son

by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

My Mother's Music

by Emilie Buchwald

In the evenings of my childhood,

when I went to bed,

music washed into the cove of my room,

my door open to a slice of light.

I felt a melancholy I couldn't have named,

a longing for what I couldn't yet have said

or understood but still

knew was longing,

knew was sadness

untouched by time.

Sometimes

the music was a rippling stream

of clear water rushing

over a bed of river stones

caught in sunlight.

And many nights

I crept from bed

to watch her

swaying where she sat

overtaken by the tide,

her arms rowing the music

out of the piano.

Emilie Buchwald bio LINK

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

Any thoughts about this week's song, Mother's Day reflections, the quotes, or anything else you encountered in this blog? How do you experience Admiration and Gratitude in your life? Send comments to:

jim51ford@outlook.com

or reply to the email this blog came in.

I look forward to publishing some of the comments I receive.

Archive of "Everything is Music" blogs:

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#2 Suffering and Hope LINK

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