I was listening to “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac today. It’s a memory song for me because there was a time I couldn’t hear without crying my eyes out. Laura used to listen to it shortly after diagnosis when I was at my lowest…and it just plain hurt to hear it. I didn’t have that reaction today. I thought of something completely different: how beautiful things can come from ugly situations.
Apparently Stevie Nicks wrote Landslide when she was “…looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us…at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways.” A beautiful song from a painful place. So much of art is like that, isn’t it?
4 Hours Later…
My youngest daughter is 9 now…though I think the past few years have made her a little older than some adults I know. She asked me if she could send an email to a very special friend of mine…and of course I said yes. I expected her to write things about puppies…dancing…maybe a little “I-Carly” reference thrown in. Instead…she wrote this:
Here you are straight an tall…hope you can have it all!!!
Looking down at you makes me feel special!!!
Sometimes you are sad…sometimes you are happy or maybe even angry!!
Be the best you can be. I hope you can be the HAPPIEST of them all!!!!
Be YOURSELF! BELIEVE in yourself. Be HAPPY!!!
I don’t even know what to say about it. Sure…I’m a braggy parent…but it’s more than that. (And the fact that it was Laura talking to her is not beyond my belief system.) I guess I wrote this because I saw my conclusion…that beautiful things can come from ugly situations…come to life in the form of a little girl methodically tapping out a message to a new friend.
I am one proud, humbled dad. Please…if you’re suffering or sad or hurt…know that something beautiful could be waiting down there. Let it come out…for all of us.
Maybe give Landslide a listen.
I instantly thought of the book “Sarah Plain and Tall” When I read what your daughter wrote. I haven’t read it (or seen the wonderful movie with Glenn Close) in years. It’s a beautiful movie. That’s really sweet. How insightful for such a young girl.
I love Landslide as well. It’s one of my favorites to sing as well.
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Oh Andy…oh Anna! That is all I can say at this moment………………..
I can so relate to songs like that. There is something about music that is so bittersweet.. especially when it is all tangled up in our memories.
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