For the first 50 years of my life, my perfectionist self mistakenly believed it was all about knowing more, getting it right, planning, attempting to prevent bad things from happening, and keeping all of my chicks in a row. It took me this long to discover that the JOURNEY is all that matters. This quote from Gilda Radner sums it all up:

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
"


Saturday, July 5, 2014

JT


This is a photo of me from the early 1970's.  I was standing in my bedroom which I shared with my two sisters.  I was wearing my signature Lee jeans.  The style wasn't quite as form fitting back then.  Sweater vests were "in".  This was before I wore makeup or took much time styling my hair.  I was holding two things that were important to me at the time:  my cat "Diddles and my Raggedy Ann doll that adorned my bed.

You can't see it in the picture, but to the right against the wall was a portable record player.  By portable, I me it was in a fold-up carrying case that you could take with you to another room. There were no personal devices like we have today to listen to music wherever you go.

So it was in my bedroom that I would play my records that I bought with the limited funds I had.  Most of the time I would buy "singles".  When I went to bed at night, I'd stack up a bunch of singles and they would play one by one as I was drifting off to sleep.  Sometimes the needle would hit a scratch in the surface of the record and it would either skip a part of the song, or worse it would keep repeating until I got up out of bed and moved the needle off the scratch.  That was very annoying.

Sometimes, if I really liked a lot of songs by one artist, I would splurge and buy an entire album.

I had a few of James Taylor's albums.


I have always been the kind of person who likes to spend time alone and contemplate life and all of it's complexities.  I would lay on my bed and listen to his songs over and over.  His songs were soothing to my young soul that felt things deeply and spent many hours trying to make sense of what I knew of life at that time.  He was like therapy for me.

His lyrics spoke to me.  His mellow voice was so easy to listen to and sing to.


Oh, and one other thing - he was cute.

One of my favorite songs of all time is  "You've Got a Friend".

I dug this up from the 1970's....





For our 30th wedding anniversary,  Vance bought tickets to see James Taylor perform at Tanglewood on July 3.  It was a fabulous concert!




I loved every minute of the the concert, which was close to 3 hours long.

  At 66 years old, his voice is just as clear and sweet and soothing as it was 40 years ago.





I bought another James Taylor album yesterday, only this time it was on itunes.


And I'd have to say, if anything, he's gotten even better with age.

#JTlove

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