When I was in university, I stayed the summers sharing a room with my grandmother at her home. Working a late sift, I would quietly tiptoe into my bed as to not wake her. Ever so silently, I would begin to hear a small voice start to sing me sweet lullabies. I would chuckle and say, "Gramma, it's ok. You don't need to sing to me, I can fall asleep on my own." Usually, she would pay no attention to me and keep singing.
Singing is a vehicle. It can express so much more than the words. I found that my grandmother was just trying to find the words to say that she loved me. She didn't know which words to speak...so she choose song.
15 years later, I work as an accredited music therapist. I continue to find that music can fill a soul more than any spoken word. Now, as a mother of four wonderful children. I realized the most precious gift that I could give my children could not be bought, but was already inside of each mother to give. It is the simple tradition of song that has linked generations...and can carry the most powerful message that a child should learn...
That they are loved....no matter who they are...and where they are going to...
They are loved because they just are.
