Music can uplift, put a bounce in a person’s step, literally it can take you to another place and time. What is your favorite music to dance to? To sing to? To hang with you in uncertainty?
There are so many songs to hang in with aren’t there? My father-in-law, Dad Clark, once was literally hanging on in a parachute after pulling the ripcord you see in the picture. The plane he was in over Oregon was in trouble and he and nine other men bailed out of the plane. This ripcord is, to the best of my knowledge, the same one he pulled when he was ordered to bail many years ago. The plane went down and the pilot and co-pilot were killed. Nine men survived and one went missing. He landed in a tree, lost a shoe, and with two other men they made their way. They built a fire the first night and eventually found some food and their way out of the woods.
We all might not have a rip cord to pull in difficult times but music is something we can hang on to, it can carry and uplift us. The anniversary of Dad Clark’s death is March 22nd. He is missed. He made a lot of people, including his family laugh. My partner and I ended up with the ripcord and it is a fitting thing to see in these times – to me it says hang in there, we can do this. And, I believe it also says the best is yet to come.
My mother-in-law, Mom Clark, loved music and dancing and made one-of-a-kind chocolate chip cookies. And because of her, I had an experience that I will never forget that taught me so much about joy. Surprisingly, this took place in the room she lay in during the last few days of her life. While the story is a bit long to go into here, I came to realize that joy was not something to relegate to only the best of times, but that it could be invited in anytime – that it was ever present and nothing to be ashamed about and it involved of all things music and dancing.
Joy can dance into the most unexpected places. This post is dedicated to Dad and Mom Clark – two people that I learned a lot about joy from in some very surprising and helpful ways.
Here are two songs that connect with me in the moment: Red Rubber Ball by Cyrkle, and this one I’ve loved ever since I heard it a few years back: Happy, by Pharrell Williams.
Enjoy the stories and have a playful day!
Mary, The Bad Ass
PS This is day twenty-one of my thirty-one day challenge on joy.
PPS I celebrate typos typos here!
