For Amy - Bird Songs

Amy,

Today is the epitome of Spring, one of those amazing days you would say actually "sang" to you. White, puffy clouds linger so lazily in a crystal blue sky, and birds echo a chorus that drowns out humanity's presence All afternoon I have wanted to spread a blanket on the cool, green grass and lie prostrate, immobile, completely still and get lost in all the possibilities of the world. Although green is so often associated with envy, the green I see today lulls complacency and harmony. It is the green of renewal, of possibility.

I think of the stories you often told - the ones about running barefoot in the grass, about splashing recklessly in a cool stream and about long, lazy afternoons making shapes out of the clouds. I always imagine you lost in a world of your own creation. You may not know it, but the many quirky things you once did to escape a torture and to sooth a bruised soul are the very things that sustain me now. Your ability to get lost completely, even if only for a few minutes, into another place, a tranquil and comforting place, provides me an opportunity to also escape and to move forward with a grace I've always hoped for.

Today, Amy, I am at peace. My mind quieted, I can reach backward and forward simultaneously and connect to the good things in my memory and to the good things in future possibilities. So, in tribute to a time of innocence, I am posting some top songs of 1974, the last time you were truly happy.

The Way We Were

Seasons in the Sun

Love's Theme

Come and Get Your Love

Bennie and the Jets

Annie's Song

One Hell of a Woman

Dancing Machine

The Loco-Motion

TSOP

Billy Don't be a Hero

It was wonderful taking a brief melody trip back into time, listening to some of those songs. I had forgotten many of these.

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