My Song

Being a very literal person, when given a writing assignment of My Song in my Creative Writing Class, I thought WOW, I have no song. I wish I did!





As a small child when I sang, my mother would ask me what I was saying and when I answered I was singing, she would tell me I couldn't sing. She had a good voice and she was probably right that I couldn't carry a tune.





In school, we were separated into singers and listeners in music class. I was a listener. Listeners had to sit in the last row in this class and keep quiet while the others sang. This greatly affected my life. I do not sing out loud to this day. I mouth the words in church and when attending a function which turns into a sing-a-long, I just sit there, mouth closed. I never sing out loud at birthday parties, again just mouthing the words. Thankfully, my children never caught on to the fact that I wasn't singing at their parties.





However since I realized early on that there is joy in song, I always attempted to encourage my children to sing. Some of them had better voices than others. One of my daughters has a lovely voice while the other one sings as well as her mother. This latter child tried out for and was accepted in glee club in sixth grade. Between songs, she would be smiling constantly up there on stage. I was so happy for her. When her son was born, she would sing to him constantly. When he got old enough to speak, he would say "gain" to her when she finished a song. It was his way of saying again and it was music to my ears. At last I had a song of my own.