Day 3

Today’s Prompt: Write about the three most important songs in your life — what do they mean to you? There are so many songs I love.  How on earth can I pick only 3?  From which stage in my life shall I focus on?  I believe one of the powers music can have on people is to take them back in time, to a specific moment, situation or interaction.  Listening to a song can bring back emotions from many years ago.  What do I want to share today…? First, I’ll go with my “anthem” by Helen Ready, “I Am Woman!”  Raised by a single mom, believer in women’s rights and yet more traditional in my core values than I sometimes like to admit, this song screams “Girl Power!” for me (and I don’t mean “girl” in a belittling way).  Women can do anything they set their mind to.  Even more when women band together.  I love the way this song builds and builds until Helen Ready is belting it out at the end.

Oh yes, I am wise.

But its wisdom born of pain.

Yes, I’ve paid the price, but look how much I’ve gained.

If I have to…I can do anything.

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman…

I bought myself the CD a few years ago and would sing my guts out on the way to work.  It got me pumped up.  It helped me get focused. Most important, this song helped me believe in myself at times when I didn’t really.  I’d put this song on and everything would seem all right.  This was the phrase I shouted when I reached the summit of Mt. Whitney with my husband (right before the altitude sickness hit me and we had to descend rapidly).  I yelled it out after hiking back to the top of the Grand Canyon much to the embarrassment of my husband and nephew.  The other tourists nearby seemed to chuckle too.  This is the chant I’ve shared with women during the 3 Day Breast Cancer walk.  It is a badge of honor.  It is a declaration.  It is my personal anthem. My second important song has got to be “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor.  This was her one hit wonder.  Though she put out other songs, this is the main one people know her for.  Again, it speaks to my soul,

I’ve got all my life to live,

I’ve got all my love to give,

And I’ll survive!

 I will survive!  Hey! Hey!

This is one of the songs that always gets me out on the dance floor.  Growing up, all the girls would dance together while the boys stood nervously on the side.  After graduating college, I distinctly remember dancing & singing this song to my college boyfriend from a disco somewhere in London.  We had broken up before the trip, and while I knew it was the right thing to do, I  needed the reassurance. Seems any time I have ever heard this song, there is always something happening in my life that I can benefit from the reminder “I will survive!”

For my third favorite, or important song in my life, I must break from the pattern established by the first two.  Instead of having another feminist anthem, I’ve got to switch to hopeless romantic.  Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic” takes the cake.  Finding that one person who loves you so much.  Meeting your soulmate and knowing your life will never be the same.  For years I imagined finding a man who would say things like this to me:

Come, come into my arms,

Oh let me know the wonder of all of you.

Baby I want you!  

Now, now, oh now and hold on fast,

Could this be the magic at last!?!

When I found it all in my husband, I couldn’t believe it.  After seventeen years of marriage we are still learning about each other.  He is the one person I trust completely.  The one I show “all of myself” to, and that has meant showing things I didn’t want to see myself.  The fact he is still here, next to me and in my life, well, that IS the magic at last!

Put all three of these songs together and you have a good snapshot of me.  While I am fiercely independent and resourceful, there are times I just want my husband to put his arms around me and hold tight.  I want to be told “Everything will be all right as long as we stick together.”