When Taylor was young, we would put Disney tapes in the car as we drove from Sallisaw to Ft. Smith or from Cushing to Stillwater and sing the princess songs on our way to the gymnastics or the grocery. She would hold my hand and belt out the words to her favorite Disney classics. When the notes caused her to reach, her young voice would become airy but the pitch never wavered.
When the song from Pocahontas began to play, I just smiled. She wore that VCR tape out, and she would become so impatient with me when I confused the verses. I remember being impressed at how well she remembered the words for such a young child. She never came in early, and she never held a note too long; her musical intelligence amazed me.
As I listened and sang along today, I was again thankful for generations of music in my family. At my grandmother's house, my aunt would play and my grandfather, and mother and I would sing with her old hymns out of the baptist hymnal. My grandfather's deep bass voice resonated with ease against my mother's soprano and my aunt's alto. Sunday afternoons when Mom and I had the house to ourselves, she would pull out the old piano song books and play for me for a good hour. Our favorites were from time periods before both of our times. Old show tunes and songs from the Vaudeville era ranked at the top of our favorites. Taylor had to settle for the radio and tapes that we would purchase as my ability on the piano fell so very short of my mother's and my aunt's proficiency. Nevertheless, we loved music together
You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Unanswerable questions - and yet so thought provoking. Kind of like the question, "Why?"
I miss you Taylor Renee - everyday - but especially when the summer sun warms my face and the music falls around the space where you're supposed to be -so thankful for that music, still.
#golighttheworld