Singin' a sweet song...

Music is an intregal part of our day. Feeling down? Then the obvious choice for tunes is Sufjan Stevens, Songs for Christmas. (For some odd reason, no other song warms my heart quite as much as this one. I don't care if it's 102 degrees in the middle of August.) Feeling analytical? Bob Dylan. Feisty? Ani DiFranco. In the mood for a dance party? Well, that could go a few ways. Arcade Fire, Feist, and Dan Zanes seem to be in heavy rotation. I have songs that I must hear while doing specific chores. The tot falls asleep listening to Pooh Corner, nightly.

In the brilliant words of Friedrich Nietzsche, "Without music life would be a mistake." Indeed.

Last December, I treated myself to an album composed by a friend from Washington, Karli Fairbanks. I picked up the package at our mailbox down the road, and the CD immediately went into the car disk changer. It has stayed in slot number three for almost a year now. I listen to it daily. I kid you not! Sometimes I even crave it more then NPR's, Morning Edition. The tot now requests "Tie Me Up", and "Whiskey Flowers" more often then any Elizabeth Mitchell or Raffi song. We are smitten! And also apparently, inspired. Recently, the tot has begun to "write" music. Somewhere she picked up the concept of music notes, and has been doing her own bit of composing, if you will. After she carefully constructs her music sheets, she then sits down at her tiny piano, pounds away at the keys, and sweetly sings her creations (which have managed to coalesce with many of Karli's songs, by the way.)

At times, our mutual love for music powerfully binds us in a place beyond mother and babe, where a small child and an adult can exist for a time as friends, harmonizing and dancing together on this journey through life.