Tag: country music

Everything’s Gonna Be Alright

Fortune for the day (getting this out of the way before I forget again) – However long the night, the dawn will break. (African Proverb)

So, as you can see, I’ve made it successfully through my new morning routine for a second day. Today, was not quite as smooth as yesterday. I took my dogs out early, into the dark, dark morning and I managed to step in a large plop of dog caca, while wearing my ginormous Ugg slippers (which are the most wonderful, durable, comfortable slippers in the world, btw). This occurred unbeknownst to me until I managed to walk around a fair portion of my home, spreading the love. So, I had to add mopping and disinfecting the tile floor to my new morning list, the “Must-do These Chores Before Doing Anything Else That Feels Remotely Fun/Interesting/Addicting, etc” list.

I met a new acquaintance the other day and she was asking me about my blog. I said that it is mostly aimed at connecting to/relating with, other middle-aged people, at my stage of life. I meant to say, “It is meant to be read mostly by soon-to-be empty nesters, finding their way to the next thing.” Instead, though, I made a Freudian slip and I called us, “empty nexters” and I thought, “Wow, that is actually the right term. We aren’t actually experiencing empty nesting, we are contemplating the empty – next-thing.” I like that terminology better. We middle-agers have vessels that have been quite full, sometimes over-flowing with responsibilities, duties and obligations. Now, those vessels are slowing seeping out to near empty, so that we can fill them up again, with our “next thing.” I love it!

I’m going to end this blog post with some lyrics to a wonderful country song that came over my iPod when I was taking my daughter to school today. My kids are very frustrated that I still use my old fashioned separate iPod (who’d ever think iPods would become old-fashioned so soon?!?), so my daughter informed me this morning that she changed some of the settings on my iPod, so at least, it would seem like I actually stream my music on Apple Music or Spotify. She said, “See, you like this song, and we haven’t heard it in forever.” She was right. Err, sometimes I hate it when the kids are right. Anyway, it was the perfect song to hear today, after my dog poo fiasco, and me cursing, under my breath, at the guy who blocked the intersection, only to find myself accidentally doing the exact same thing on the way home, during the crazy morning rush hour. So, that’s when I started my well-worn self-flagellation for judging others, and then I started worrying about friends who are unfortunately starting out their new year, in the hospital. Luckily my propensity for singing (and sometimes dancing) along with songs (particularly country songs), stopped my negative thought loop, in its tracks. I decided that this song was worth listening to, again and again, until I felt better and it worked. In fact, I am listening to it right now. Here are the lyrics to the chorus:

Everything’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright
Nobody’s gotta worry ’bout nothing
Don’t go hitting that panic button
It ain’t near as bad as you think
Everything’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright

There ain’t no doubt it’s gonna work out
Come on, sing it with me
There ain’t no doubt it’s gonna work out
Come on and sing it with me

Everything’s gonna be alright

By David Lee Murphy and Kenny Chesney

Have a fantastic day, friends!! Everything’s gonna be alright!!

Down-Home Wisdom

RIP – Luke Perry. Too soon. So, so sad. Back in the day, my friends and I were huge 90210 fans. How fleeting life can be!

While looking at my newsfeed, I got sidetracked on another bit of news about the musician Jerry Lee Lewis. He recently suffered a minor stroke. As often happens in my course of clicking through news stories, I started researching more and then, being reminded of the movie, Great Balls of Fire!, I somehow ended up downloading a book to my kindle, written by Jerry Lee Lewis’ ex-wife. Now Jerry Lee Lewis has several ex-wives, but this book was written by the notorious ex-wife who was his 13-year-old second cousin and that marriage almost completely derailed his musical career. Her name is Myra Lewis Williams and her book that I downloaded is called, The Spark That Survived.

I am not a huge country music fan. Still, I find myself drawn to the stories of women country musicians who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something of themselves, despite all of the odds against them. They’re as American pioneer as a person can get, in my mind. I have read several articles and exposes about Dolly Parton. I have read more than one book written by Loretta Lynn and I finished The Spark That Survived, in just one sitting. I have found that what these women lack in formal education and “grooming”, they more than make up for, in their sheer pluck, determination, and faith in God and in themselves. They have a grounded common sense that seems to be a lacking quality these days, and I find it so refreshing to hear their honest, true voices speaking candidly about life and how they see it. These strong country women typically hold nothing back.

Here are some gems I plucked from The Spark That Survived:

On friends – “Friends understand that you dogs come first. Friends understand when you want to spit at your husband but love him dearly anyway. Friends understand your female problems. Friends are there when you go to the hospital, with a nice new set of pretty jammies for you to wear. Friends buy your lunch when you are broke. Friends listen to your troubles and then dismiss them when you do. Sometimes friends cry with you, but most of all they make you laugh and let you know that you are loved. . . We all need friends.”

On co-parenting with a jerk – “If you teach a child that their father is bad then they may very well think that since they are his child they, too, are bad. It’s a thin line to walk but trying to turn a child against one of the parents is like beating your ex over the head with your child as a weapon. Being an ex-wife is not easy and I was determined that she was not going to be an ex-child.”

On overcoming rock bottom – “I’m living proof that your past does not have to determine your present, or your future, for that matter. If you feel like nothing, that means you have the freedom to be anything you want to be. As I always say, if a naive thirteen-year-old girl could elope with her famous second cousin, and survive all of the tragedy and trouble that wrought, you can survive your dumbass decisions, too.”

On forgiveness – “I’ve realized that forgiveness isn’t for the other person, it’s for yourself. You do it so that you can move on with your life, no longer giving that other person one iota of space in your thoughts or actions. . . . I suppose for people who like to control others, that’s hard to accept. If you’re the one who’s been manipulating others, driven them away and still trying to yank their chain and they’re just not even letting themselves be connected to that chain anymore, it would seem a rude awakening.”

On the edge of despair (Myra lost a child to drowning and was very abused by Jerry Lee Lewis) – “It was as if Myra the girl melted away into that cold, damp earth and a grown woman slipped into the body that was left behind. . . . I know that psychiatrists would probably say I’m nuts, or at the very least it was a natural maturing of my ability to cope. They would be wrong. This body was now home to a new person. I suspect there are lots of people who know what I mean. Anybody who has been to that edge of desperation and despair, and somehow got back up to carry on with life, might have a sense of having died and been reborn. . . . . It was the new me who breathed the fresh morning air and knew that life must go on.”

I am a firm believer that many perspectives give you a whole perspective. I have never limited myself to where I find my treasure of wisdom. I seek wisdom everywhere. In my experience, some of the most profound gleaming gems of real truth, have come from the least likely of sources. Down-home wisdom is often the best.