My mother is 85 years old. She loves music. Just about any music—rock, funk, country, soul, big band and all the rest. I think she finds in music a hope, a refuge from a world that hasn’t always been kind to her, and a vehicle in which she can travel at will through time and space to the good times of her life, past all worry and hurt.
For Mom, music brings to life memories of young love and romance, fondly remembered people and places of her thousands of days in this life, and helps her more clearly see a vision of a better time and a better place where she hopes one day to live. If there has ever been a truly gentle soul upon this earth is has been my mother. Heaven will one day be a better place when she is there.
Mom loves music videos too. Her favorite pastime is sitting with me in front of my iMac and watching them. Almost every night she wants to watch a few videos before she heads off to bed, and every night she wants to end with her favorite. Her favorite isn’t what you might expect from an octogenarian. It’s a Curtis Mayfield soul tune from the Seventies, a song about moving up. It’s a song that lifts her spirits and brings a smile to her face. I love to see her smile. I love my Mom.
Mom’s spent the last couple of nights in the hospital. She wants to go home now. If she can, we’ll watch some music videos at home tonight. If she can’t, I’m bringing the music to her on my laptop. Either way, her spirits will be lifted a little.
Mom watches the videos, and I watch her, and we both feel better about life and more hopeful for the future. It’s the reason God made music. It’s the reason God made my Mom.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Your mom sounds really special, Prentice! I believe music is one of God’s great blessings which can definitely lift the spirits and cheer the heart.
Prentice, I can relate so well to your mother! I too love music! Seems it’s always been a part of my life. A key, necessary part. And it’s what I look forward most to in our eternal Home: singing praises to our God and to the Lamb, just like John heard in Revelation.
As Connie writes in her Comment, music IS one of God’s great blessings.
I remember while I was in high school (Borah HS, Boise ID, Class of 1972) that “Up With People” came to pay us a visit — about the best of the assemblies we had at Borah. Someone in the group proclaimed that “music is the universal language”, and I “Amen!” this!
I say “about the best of the assemblies” because THE BEST in my memory was our annual Christmas assembly, in which the gym was dark except for dim natural light from outside, and our Acappella Choir majestically strode in wearing green robes with gold stoles (Borah’s school colors), holding electric candles emitting green or golden lights, singing “Adeste Fideles/O Come All Ye Faithful”. And yes, they sang both the Latin and the English! It was simply an awesome experience for yours truly, as sophomore, junior AND senior!
Music and song! Thank God for them!