The Gift of Music

My 14 yr. old son and I sometimes get along like oil and water.  We butt heads regularly.  Part of it is simply because he’s a teenager.  The other part, from what everyone who knows me quite well likes to tell me on a regular basis, is because we are just alike.  I guess that must be the ‘strong-willed, opinionated and always has to have the last word’ part.

Today was an oil and water day between us.  There was just no getting along and there was a lot of bickering and storming off to other rooms by each of us.  Usually the only way to get past it is for us to just avoid each other for the rest of the day and start fresh the next day.  I really hate days like this.

Tonight, after dinner, a couple of loads of laundry, signing off on homework and packing lunches for school, I finally collapsed on the couch.  I was tired and cranky and wanted to just lose myself in some mindless television show.  I scrolled through my recorded shows on my DVR and saw that I had recorded a show called “Crossroads” shown on CMT.   It’s a show where one country music artist/band and another artist/band of another genre get together and sing eachother’s songs.  The show I recorded was with Train and Martina McBride.  I like Martina McBride, but I really love Train.  When I hit the play button, my 14 yr. old, sitting on the other end of the couch doing the last of his weekend homework, sighed audibly and rolled his eyes.  He hates country music, which isn’t suprising as I don’t think there’s many 14 yr. old boys that do like it.  I just ignored him, turned it up and kept watching.   The song that they began to sing was “Soul Sister”, a Train song.  I love this song, have on my iPod and play it all the time in the car.  In fact, we all like it.  It is such a happy, upbeat song.  As they sang,  out of the corner of my eye, I could see my 14 yr. old watching and moving his fingers to the rythm of the music.   Soon my 10 yr. old came out when he heard it and sat down to watch.  We have a great surround sound system so I turned it up, all of us moving a foot or hand in time with the music.  When it got to the chorus, we all started singing it.  The energy in the room completely had changed.  It was great.  Not bad, my 14 yr. old had said when the song had finished, for a country singer.  And just like that, all the anger from the day was gone.  We talked about Train and music and favorite songs for a little while and then he went back to his homework while I watched the rest of the show.  Seriously, what would we do without the power of music in our lives?  What a gift…be it Train or country music. 😉