The Living Years (Mike + The Mechanics) – day 8
Say it loud. Say it clear. You can listen as well as you hear.
I remember hearing this song for the first time having no frame of reference for the emotion in the lyrics. Not very long after that, I stumbled face first into the subjectivity of it when I got the call that my father had cancer.
Here we are, thirty-one years and too many losses to count later, and this song is just the perfect message to any person that loves another person, whether it’s a parent or a child or a spouse.
Say it loud. Say it clear. You can listen as well as you hear.
Today is May 21, and on this day fourteen years ago I got the call that my mom had passed. I cherish the relationship I built with my mother in the interim years after my father passed, and I give due credit to this song and its lyrics for that. Knowing all the things that went unsaid with me and him forced me out of any closeted comfort zone to be as honest and loud to and with my mother, creating a friendship built on love and mutual respect. I was never ashamed to be who I was, and even if I were she’d never have allowed it.
Take what you will from this blog post, but please know that I have experienced more than enough loss in my lifetime already, but what I have taken is true communication, always, is so key to all my relationships. We don’t always have to agree, but where there is love and compassion, there is freedom in the transparency. It’s too late when we die to admit we don’t see eye to eye.