12.20.2010

post-it notes & pianos

apparently i have a thing for post-it notes.

when i was interviewed by the fabulous Becky, i talked a bit about how this little post-it note was a catalyst for some changes that i have made in my life over the past two years. it is an important little piece of paper for me that I am revisiting this holiday season and making some changes to for the new year.




and just about the time that i decided i would come up with some fun, new resolutions, as well as some serious ones, i found another post-it note in a bunch of paperwork that i went through last weekend.

this post-it note is the piece of paper i took notes on the morning that my mother passed away. it would be my last phone conversation with her loving nurses about what they hoped to do to ease her pain and make her comfortable. and, at the time, i had no idea that it would also be the day she would join God and my dad in Heaven.



so, again, i find myself faced with a post-it note, at the seemingly right time in my life. and, although i'm sad and prepared for a difficult Christmas, i'm also really looking forward to my first, and most important, resolution of the year....

my mom loved music & my childhood was filled with music and instrument lessons, church choir, dancing to 45's, and seeing the Boston Pops. She was able to plan part of her memorial service before she passed away, and the thing she focused on wasnt the scripture readings or homily or any part of the Bible....it was the 3 hymns she wanted sung, with a specific request that the service end with Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, sung in a low bass voice.

I dont know why I never realized it before, but it was during the process of planning for her memorial that it just slapped me in the face...i got how important music was to her, and that she was the one who had instilled that love in me. In the subsequent few weeks that I have been feeling blue, a little window into my past keeps opening wider and wider, and leads me back to my childhood.

so, resolution #1 in honor of my mom...relearn to play the piano. santa is bringing a keyboard and i'm filling the bench with mozart, bach, beethoven & the beatles (for little C and me).


and, if i could have figured out how to convert the .wma file into an mp3 and then figured out how to get music on here, i would have posted Swing Low Sweet Chariot, sung to piano music in a low bass voice, for you. but i couldnt figure it out.


you'll just have to trust me when i tell you it was beautiful.

(and if anyone can help me figure this out, i would love to share it...)



2 comments:

  1. Oh Mindy. Tears are streaming down my cheeks. I am so deeply sorry for your loss. I pray that you will be able to get through this very difficult time. I hope your lessons go wonderfully and you feel like you are playing with your Mom when you begin lessons again.

    Love.

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  2. I'm sorry you're recently going through the loss of your mother, especially in time for the holidays! But what a wonderful way to honor your mother's life :) Thinking of you and your family this holiday season!!

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