19 January 2011

Lyrics to Love::Dream

Late at night in the studio I have to have some sort of background noise. Tonight my noise of choice is a station on Pandora called Contemporary Singer-Songwriters. I like that the sound is not as driving as rock or as boppy as the all 80s mix. Tonight I heard a new (to me) singer named Priscilla Ahn. Her sweet vocals and acoustic guitar were charming. But it was the words of this song that really stood out to me. There is no need to add more to her voice. It is ethereal. I wish that I could sing as purely as she does.

This song brings to mind an image I have of my childhood. We lived at 6609 43rd Avenue North in Crystal, Minnesota. At the end of the street it was a dead end with a deep, wooded ravine. There was a park at the top of this ravine complete with the geodesic dome climbing structure and loads of leaves to tumble around in.

My friends Jill Sandeen and Tamara Graf and I would meet there. I would cruise over on my banana seat bike with the high handlebars and the streamers flowing. The best part about that park was the swings. The slab of rubber held tight with heavy duty chain that clinked together was the tallest structure there. 

We would all try to swing until we would be level with the top of the structure. It always felt that it would topple over, as if it weren't anchored in the ground (likely it wasn't, it was the 70s). There was always someone who called to mind the legend of the boy who swung so high he went all the way over. Twice. We wanted to try that ourselves. When you were swinging out over this lofty slope, it was easy to feel that you could do anything. The wind whistled in your ears, the chains creaked with each pass. And then there is that split second when you let go of the chains and catapult yourself off the rubber launching pad to tuck yourself in and roll to a stop in a pile of leaves. The free fall looked exhilarating. 

I always dreamed I could fly. 

But I never was brave enough to let go.

Until now.
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I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home for me.
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my house guests bark and leaves, and laughed in my pretty bed of green.

I had a dream

That I could fly from the highest swing.
I had a dream.

Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park, I asked God who I'm supposed to be.

The stars smiled down on me, God answered in silent reverie. I said a prayer and fell asleep.

I had a dream

That I could fly from the highest tree.
I had a dream.

Now I'm old and feeling gray. I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave.

I lived it full and I lived it well, there's many tales I've lived to tell. I'm ready now, I'm ready now, I'm ready now to fly from the highest wing.

I had a dream

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Your turn... 
What is a childhood memory that you recall?
Do any of these lyrics speak to you? Which one? What is is saying to you?
Do tell!

7 comments:

Alice said...

I've heard this beautiful song so many times on the radio, but never seem to catch all the words. Reading the lyrics--the last part--brought tears to my eyes as I watch my mother struggle with her time left on this earth.

As a child we lived in the country. There were so many adventures for us kids there, including sliding down a small waterfall on the North 40. Though it was probably only two feet high at the time, to us kids it was 100 feet tall. At the bottom...mud and crawdads.

Priscilla has a lovely, clear voice. Thanks so much for sharing!

SummersStudio said...

She has a beautiful voice. It's like listening to a beautiful lullaby for grown ups. You always make me think or maybe 'introspect.' I appreciate that more than I can express. I think the most important part of this is to put the dream into present tense right now. I 'have' a dream. So that when you get to the end, as we all inevitably do, you can look back and reflect that you lived in the present tense. Even if the dream is that you live life with love and kindness rather than a goal of acheivment of something more tangible. Believe me, this is a very hard dream for an over acheiver, sparkler in the mind sort of woman like me. Rambling again.....Thank you for bringing back my own memory of swings. I can feel the thrill of it! It must be a childhood universal. Have a lovely day and live your dreams!

Unknown said...

Tingles, goosebumps and memories. Thank you for all three of them!

steufel said...

Oh Erin, I have the same memories regarding the swings. And I too was to afraid to let go. Thank you so much for reminding me! Now I'm sitting here with a smile on my face.

Barbara Lewis said...

Wow, that gave me chills ... thanks for sharing this. Hey, the house of which you wrote in this blog is that the same house where the cat feel down on you from the ceiling? LOL

Silver Parrot said...

ROFL...I had a banana seat bike with streamers, too. Mine was painted a sparkley, metallic pink color called "Hot Cinnamon" and the banana seat had these groovy 70's flower decals on it.

I thought I was sooooo cool.

Brandi Hussey said...

This was beautiful! Thanks for the smile. :)

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