7 years

First heard of Lukas Graham through my son Mahonrai who is serving a mission now.  One of his favorite song back then was "Drunk in The Morning".  I came across 7 years a couple days ago while listening to my son's songs on Soundcloud and 7 years was promoted.  Listened to it and I was hooked.  Mainly because, it gives a timeline that makes me hold my breath while assessing my own life.  7 years, 11 years, 30 years and soon to be 60 years old.

How amazing all our lives are.  The chance to just have lived in this world and breath.  The bodies that we each have, whether perfect or not is still a wonderment on each own.  That we came, we lived and then we die.  Reminiscing when I was 7 years old, it seems like I lived another life.  Each phase from 1 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50 seems like different stages of a big play and we are the main characters of our own movies.  In our minds we can rewind to memories that makes us smile, tear up or cringe.

While being a young teenager, I remember being so anxious to be 18.   Couldn't wait to be old enough.   Couldn't wait to leave home and live my own life.  Couldn't wait to meet my future husband.  Couldn't wait for a lot of things.  Looking back, I wish I had taken time to cherish those very moments of my life instead of being so anxious for the unknown.  Now, here I am and I totally miss my childhood.  Sometimes I wish I can just go back to being a little girl, so safe and well loved by mom, dad and so many families.  No responsibilities because life can be so harsh and if one is not strong enough, you're bound to feel defeated instead of succeeding.   Sometimes.  

At almost 52 years old, I'm indulging in my daily life cherishing every moment with the ones I love. Especially my two little granddaughters.  Oh how much I love and adore them.   Once you pass half a century old, you realize you have to make sure each moment count because you'll never know when death knocks at your door.  I cherish my children and I try not to judge them too harshly for the choices that they make because I myself didn't always make the right choices.

Thank you Lukas Graham for sharing your amazing talent with the world.    Thank you God for the gift of beautiful music.  What a dull life it would be without MUSIC.  

IJS Keep It 100

I know it's been awhile since I've post about a song, but what better come back then sharing another one of my son's song, "IJS Keep It 100".  He's getting more and more recognition for his music and he's so much more comfortable on stage then ever before. 

Every song he writes comes from his personal experience and sometimes it makes me laugh but then other times, it makes me cry.  He writes with a passion and he's good at what he does.  A little more consistent and persistent, he'll make it. 

"I'm Just Saying, Keep It 100" has a twist of humor to it.  I listened to it the first time and had to smile because only my son would write a song of complain rather then a love song.  LOL.  It's the story of his life.  Some of the comments on Soundcloud are hilarious.  One comment goes,  "It's about time I sing a song like this to my lady."  This is just part of the lyrics:

"...Baby, tell me what you're gonna do?  
When all you do is lay around, watching ev'ry drama on your Timeline. 
We don't need your Facebook, all of them fake friends....
I'm just sayin, Keep it one hundred babe."

On Soundcloud he reached almost 200,000 in only a couple months.  He performs locally and has more request for out-of-state appearances.  I'm so excited for him.  Music has always been a big part of our family.  I'm just glad he didn't give up on this great talent.  There's always room for variety of beautiful music in this world.   

"Im Covering My Ears and turning up the Volume when you Speak"

I just now discovered Sam Smith.  He is amazing.

"I'm covering my ears like a kid...
I'm turning up the volume when you speak..."

This is exactly what I'm feeling now towards one of my children.  Twisted that I'm feeling like a kid but for days now we've gone back and forth, back and forth.  Words, like feathers are out there and impossible to get them back.  There's no way we can control what people are saying and thinking.  But when we allow them to come between family, then I want to stick my tongue out, cover my ears and perhaps run naked down the street screaming "Na na na la la la la la la la........"

Music these days gets to me through my children.  What they're listening to and I try to zoom in to the words and make sure they're not sexually provocative or vulgar.  So I always know what they're listening to.  My son Mahonrai played this song and it just hit me that this is what I wanted to do to one of my other children.   I'm tired of being judged by things that I didn't say and being held responsible for how other people thinks and feels towards them.

 "Enough is enough...your words mean nothing I go La la la".

I love music.

"I can't find no silver lining..."  I've tried everything I can think of to mend broken fences between us, but it seems the more I try the worse things gets.  All I want  is to be in good terms so we can all get on with our lives.  Get along for time is so so so short.  We waste it on anger and criticism.  Ain't nobody has time for that.

As for now,  I will resolve to ignoring anything that is said concerning this matter.

"...when you spit your venom.. I hate it.... when you hiss and preach
I'm gonna drown you out before I lose my mind.
When I hear your speech is tiring enough is enough
I'm covering my ears like a kid...
I'm turning up the volume when you speak...
I'll find a way to block it ....

We are all running out of time people.

Priscilla Renea: "Rockabye Baby"

My son Mahonrai played her songs while driving back from their High School.  I'd like to think I've got an ear for good lyrics but never expected this one.  Priscilla Renea discusses the consequences of early sex and high school drop outs in a humorous musical way in this song.

"Little Miss Mary Mack had buttons all down her back.  She let Georgie loosen them up and now her belly's fat."

On the phone every day I talk to young girls around 18 years old who has already had a kid or three with no job, single and living off child support, disability or SSI.  In all my knowledge about SSI I never knew that  anyone below 65 can qualify.  I've always thought they were for retired 65 year old people.   It shocked me to know that there are so many young people living off SSI.

In the song it talks about Georgie leaving and abandoning Mary and the babies.  Yes, she had a second child.  Mary can't find a job because she dropped out of High School and didn't graduate.  Had no college education at all.  Then the struggles go on and the chain continues to the next generation.  Because there is no good foundation coming from the home. 

The song has a catchy tune to it and a I love this artist.  Priscilla Renea is one underrated artist.  She discusses issues in her music that deals with the consequences of wrong decisions.  Especially when it comes to teenage sex, even safe sex and marriage.  Young kids are not ready to have sex let alone get married.  There's an order to everything in this life and if we try to skip we'll end up falling on our noses.

Strawberry Wine and Seventeen

And who doesn't think of "Strawberry Wine"  especially during Summer Time.  One of my all time favorite is this catchy, tasty and delicious tune of Strawberry Wine by the enticing voice of Deana Carter.  Sings of young innocent love at 17, banks of the river, well hidden paths and the Hot July moon.  It is the first of July after all to-day and I can't sleep simply because the heat is distracting and we have no air conditioning.    

At 17, most girls go through that first love that they can't quite forget when they grow old.  Not that they aren't over it, but that "first taste of love" leaves somewhat of an everlasting "bittersweet" memory of the feeling itself.  To some the taste and then the other is the "lost of innocence." 

Isn't this how young teen age love feels like.   The curiosity and the longing of a freshly discovered love.  "WE found love growing wild..."  It is a time of excitement and anxiousness.  Anxious to know and experience more.  Undecided whether to stay within the boundaries or give in and let it all go up in flame.  Oh to be so young, innocent and in love.  So fresh, innocent and new. 

 "My biggest fear was September when he had to go."   Most love at 17 never works out.  Too young to settle down.  Goals, plans can put distance between love.  Through the years though, you still REMEMBER.  At seventeen, 30 seems so ancient.  Now at almost 50 it seemed like so long ago and we long for 30 again.  I don't know about 17 though.   "Fields have grown older now...there's nothing time hasn't touch..."  Life happens and we can only look back with a smile and every now and then remember what love felt like at 17.  The memories always at the tip of our minds.  "Funny how those memories they last." 

"Year after year I come back to this place, just to remember the taste..." 


 In love simply with the feeling of love itself.  Nothing beats the feeling of love at 17. 
It's like "Strawberry Wine".   I've never tasted wine and never will but "Strawberry Wine"  seems to be the perfect description of love at Seventeen.  Gets one all tipsy, wild eyed and willing to taste and take that daring step to the unknown.  Then drift away "like the leaves in the Fall".  Left with memories to go back to in this journey of life.  We relive our lives in our minds.  Even way back to when we were once 17.  I love listening to this song.  Makes me want to time travel sometimes. 

"Home" Michael Puble

"Home", the word itself makes me SIGH!  Longing for my childhood home every now and then.  So long ago and so far away.

Where do you consider your home?  

They say HOME is where the HEART is.

TRUE

This beautiful, melancholy song by Michael Buble takes me back to my childhood days where I was born and grew up.  Just the memory of it touched my heart in a sad kind of way.  It was such a happy time.  The carefree days of my childhood years.  So much fond memories and delightful time.

 I have a new home now.  With my husband and my precious children.  But every now and I yearn for my long-time-ago home where I grew up.  It's always on the tip of my mind.  This is one of the songs that takes me clear back to my little girl days.
  
A weary traveler.  Restless yet focused.  Discovers he's tired of it all.  That his search for fulfillment is frivolous and unsatisfying.  That at the end of it all, there's only one place he'd rather be.  And that is his home with the one he loves.  "Her" is where his heart is.

We all have a special place in our hearts where we call home.  To some, it may not be a place at all but a  "someone".  A house is just a house.  It will not make a "home" if you're heart is not in it.  Where one's heart is, is where one's "home" is. 


I love this song.  "I'm coming back home." 


A home is a place you want to go back to.  To rest.  To be loved.  To be accepted and to be cherished.

"You'll always be my baby" Sara Evans

I listened to this song and can't help but be transported back in time to the days where I was "daddy's little girl".  How much I loved and adored my father.  Most of the choices I made were with cautious that I don't damage his good name and my mothers.  Charlie was a fun and loving man.  My entire childhood, thanks to him, was like a season spent playing in a park.

There was one occasion where I was on the brink of being beaten by him.  It was my Freshman year in High School and to my surprise, my very first ever boyfriend, who was a Senior made a shocking decision to drop by my house one evening.  My parents weren't home and I was the only one home.  He was drunk and I desperately wanted to get rid of him before they got home.   As a young girl, I was forbidden to take on a "boyfriend".  But in my own rebellious teen-age heart, I refused to listen.  Not a serious relationship at all.  No.  It was the "hi" and "hello" type of friendship.  Everywhere I go I seem to have a tail following me and that was my little brother or a cousin or my aunt Linda Lahi.

While frantically attempting to get rid of him, my cousin Afu decided at that moment to drop by our house.  He was furious when he saw that my boyfriend was over at my house.  He immediately ran to find my other male cousins so that they can beat up my boyfriend.  Well, I already know what was coming, so I dragged and begged my boyfriend to leave right away.  Luckily it was getting dark outside, and not a second too soon, my parents pulled up in the driveway, as my boyfriend was exiting quietly to the back road.  The most fortunate thing happened as soon as my parents pull into our driveway.  The electricity went out!  Oh my Lord that was a sign from Heaven that He was watching over me.  That I was probably not going to get beat because the whole village was in pitch darkness.  I scrambled towards the farthest living room away from the back of the house where they were going to enter into the house.   I heard my father yelping my name:  "SEEELLLLAAA where are you?"

Of course they couldn't see a thing and I was far away so I yelled back.  "I'm here in the house dad!"  He shouted back:  "If it weren't for the electricity going out, I'd have belt you right now girl." My male cousins outside the house were running around in search of the boyfriend.  Little did they know he was long gone.

The part of the video where she lost her innocence and knew she'd let God down touched me.  To some girls, their innocence might be a burdensome thing.  They can't wait to get rid of it.  But to others that treasures their innocence, once they cross the line, think that they're probably "too far gone".  Fortunately, God is a God of forgiveness, goodness, mercy and love.  We are never too far gone.  He will always love us no matter what and where we are in this life.  WE are His children.

What a beautiful and touching song.  I feel the same way about my children.   Sometimes  the choices they make may temporarily dazzle me.  But there will always be forgiveness and love in my heart for them.  I treasure the short time I have with my children.  I see other people that are not part of my family the same way.  In this up-our-nose full of contradictions life, there will always be room for forgiveness, love and kindness.