Tuesday, February 15, 2011

In the Mix


My playlist is playing at top volume. I need to hear it from my computer, passed the washing machine, down the hall, in the kitchen. It has to beat, and move me, above the running water, the clanking dishes, over the grating tedium of cleaning. Play it loud, please.

Beautiful
Bubbly
Black Bird
Sometimes
Someday
Follow You Down
The Littlest Birds
Back In Your Own Back Yard...
on the souls of my traveling shoes...



The Littlest Birds sing the prettiest songs.

And in the mix, among the dirty dishes, the wrappers, pencils, gears, motors, metal, paint, rose petals, our busy days' flotsam and jetsam... in the mix I find beauty. I have to pause. I want to remember the day Maria came to me and said: "I collected leaves, and see what William made for me? See how he made my leaves a collection? Isn't it wonderful?"

It is wonderful. In the mix of good and bad, life is wonderful.

Turning up the volume, and getting back to the mix, smiling...

It takes a thought to make a word
And it takes some words to make an action
It takes some work to make it work
It takes some good to make it hurt
It takes some bad for satisfaction

La la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Al la la la la

It takes a night to make it dawn
And it takes a day to make you yawn brother
And it takes some old to make you young
It takes some cold to know the sun
It takes the one to have the other

And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
It takes some fears to make you trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the dust to have it polished

6 comments:

ArtyZen said...

Oh Natalie, you write so ..good! Little sidelong glances into your life with a sunbeam tinting the normal into the extraordinary. You are talented. All of you - William's presentation of Maria's collection is just so right. Axxx

Cat said...

I find nothing interesting about my day cleaning. Yours, however, is amazing. Lovely blog.

Cat

Jennifer said...

It is only natural that on a day I am thinking about music that you are thinking about it, too. Of course. And you are so very right -- in the mix of good and bad, life IS wonderful.

Janece said...

I want to be you when I grow up! :)

Susan said...

That leaf collection has a lot of love symbolized there. That William would take the time to make all those little slits in the paper to display the leaves says a lot about his love and respect for his little sister.

Music does make a big job seem a little smaller. :)

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Annie... thank you. This makes me feel good. Some things I write, then I think: "You are goofy to write that, or write it that way..." Doubt. So, it feels like a relief when someone understands me!
What William did for those leaves, for Maria... it makes me very happy.

Cat... a small joke at my expense: The only "amazing" thing is that I clean at all! Late in life I have returned to my teenage impression of cleaning... it's not that fun, and there are other things I prefer to do! Thank you for the blog praise.

Jennifer... we are kindred spirits.

Janece... you see good in me, and I cannot deny that it makes me feel good. But, boy... I struggle to see myself as a role model. Uhm... can you tell this is *one of those days?!*

Susan... you are right. I am in awe, and profoundly grateful.

Thank you friends. It's a rough day, and I feel better after reading your comments... less pathetic and hopeless. Maybe this is a good time to turn up the volume on some more music!