There's a Song in my Heart

Have you ever noticed that songs can trigger memories? They do for me, anyway. They don’t usually trigger a specific memory, but usually a certain time period in my life. For instance, when I was in high school, I was the church pianist for the church I grew up in. One day, we pulled out the “old” hymnals, which we hadn’t used in several years, but had had used for YEARS before we bought the new ones. Someone chose a song which didn’t seem familiar to me, until I started playing. At that point, I started getting pictures in my head of the church nursery and the toys I’d played with in there as a small child. No kidding. It was the strangest thing.


That was probably the most extreme occurrence. Yesterday at work, I decided I could use some tunes, so I pulled out my mp3 player. It started playing a Jack Johnson album, and I immediately thought of warm weather and the first apartment Dean and I lived in after we got married. Good times. I often long for those times. There are a lot of reasons why I wouldn’t want to go back, but there are a lot of things I miss about that time too. We lived there for the first year of our marriage. It was small, but we made it home. It meant paying rent, but it was so stress free.

I was still finishing up my last year of college, and I didn’t have to be in class until 11:30am. Every morning, I’d get up and make Dean breakfast and send him off to work…and then I’d go back to bed. After a couple more hours sleep, I’d get up and start my day…which usually included an episode of the Cosby Show as I got ready for the day. On the days that I didn’t have class, I’d often bake banana bread to have waiting for Dean when he got home. I made other things too, but that was our favorite. In the afternoons, I’d go to one of the elementary schools in town and pickup a kindergartener named David. Then, we’d head home and get ready for Dean to get home from work.

At the time, I got tired of keeping a 5 year old all afternoon, and couldn’t wait for graduation and a real job. Now that I’ve been in the workforce after college, I really wish I could go back to those days. I miss that kid. I miss sleeping in. I miss spending time outside on a warm day if I so choose. I miss Jack Johnson playing on the radio with the warm spring breeze coming in the windows. I miss greeting my husband when he got home from work, and the smell of fresh banana bread.

All that time, I couldn’t wait to finish college. Now, I long to have that time back…. Or at least the part where I was home more and it was warm outside. Sigh…