Childhood Memories

I sit on the couch on this Easter Sunday with my beautiful baby girl beside me sleeping peacefully. She fought this nap, much like every other, so I decided to make use of the laptop and YouTube. I searched for a song which has meant the world to me for many years, so much that I walked down the aisle as it played. Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
When I was in second grade, they employed a method called Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) in order to encourage us to read more. My teacher always turned down the lights and played Pachelbel's Canon. This song always calmed down our class no matter how energetic we wre that day. Peaceful, beautiful, serene, awe-inspiring. Much like my beautiful daughter sleeping in her pillow, not a care in the world. This sweet serenity reminds me of the hope and joy that comes from music. As a second song, I found Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which holds more bittersweet memories for me. I first heard it when I was in fifth grade, as I waited with my Aunt Kathy and my mom in the lobby of the Hospice where my Grandma lived, only days before she passed away. I can still see my aunt sitting in front of that black Grand Piano, so much emotion and beauty in her playing, as we all recognized that this would be one of the last times we would ever see my Grandma, a woman who's name has been passed down to Natalie. Rose. I even sometimes want to call Natalie "Rosie" because she resembles my beautiful Grandmother in so many ways. She has the same reddish hair, the same unfortunate jowels that have been passed down through my mother and me, the same love of life and addictive giggle. A woman who showed me early on that it was okay to be different, it was okay to be sick AND happy, a woman who should by all medical reasoning have died twenty years sooner than she did, my Grandma lives on in my mother, my daughter and me...
And finally, a search for lullabies led me to one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. Andrea Bocelli. "Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye)" is one of my favorite love songs of all time, sung in beautiful Italian by a man who cannot see, but has decided that life is too wonderful to pity oneself and instead has had an illustrious career that is not over. The song I found, however, was from Sesame Street. Andrea Bocelli and Elmo's Lullaby. In a strangely angelic adaptation, Elmo is refusing to go to bed, while Bocelli sings "Time to Say Goodnight." I highly recommend searching for this video.
While Pachelbel's Canon was ultimately what put my dear angel to sleep, I was thankful to have a few moments to enjoy the other songs as well. My sweet, wonderful, bewitching daughter steals my heart every time she looks at me and smiles, every time she sleeps, every time she breathes. It was nice to remember some of the things that got me to where I am today, and know that these things will get her through as well.