Ben Plate

Sing-A-Longs...

I am listening to Jack Johnson’s song, “Upside Down” and I conjure up in my mind a perfect memory of our boys, a little, round, two year old Ben with a brilliant smiling face and our six year old, first-grader, big boy Marcus watching this movie and happily singing along to Jack’s songs from his aptly named album ‘Sing-A-longs and Lullabies’.

I am so glad for these time marking songs that sit in my heart for always and upon hearing, recall such immense past happiness.

Smile by Uncle Kracker

Every once in a while I come across a song that I could have written, a song that already lives inside of my heart but that Uncle Kracker seems to have beaten me to... thanks for stealing my thunder dude.

Smile lyrics

You're better then the best
I'm lucky just to linger in your light
Cooler than the flip side
Of my pillow, that's right

Completely unaware
Nothing can compare to where
You send me, lets me know that it's okay
Yeah, it's okay
And the moments where my good times start to fade

You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed
Sing like bird, dizzy in my head
Spin like a record, crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

Even when you're gone,
Somehow you come along just like
A flower pokin' through the sidewalk crack
And just like that
You steal away the rain, and just like that

You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed
Sing like bird, dizzy in my head
Spin like a record, crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

Don't know how I lived without you
'Cause every time that I get around you
I see the best of me inside your eyes
You make me smile

You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild

You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed
Sing like bird, dizzy in my head
Spin like a record, crazy on a Sunday night

You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Oh, you make me smile

Cleopatra 1963

Elizabeth Taylor at 31, what a lovely lady.

248. To the Virgins, to make much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of Heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run.
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

When I first read this, as a seventeen year old girl, I clearly understood Harricks urging.
Ironically the older I get the more I embrace that urging because I find that I have more freedom and more confidence to do so.
To paraphrase: "Live your life, savor it, so that when you are old you can look back with joy and satisfaction upon it, until you are dead that is."

So every day, you will find me gathering my rosebuds.

The Way I Am

There is music that I associate with specific seasons, probably because that is when I first heard the song. For instance when Ben was in Playschool in 2008, we went to the pumpkin patch and listened to "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson. Ben renamed it "The Pumpkin Song". I always listen to this album in the fall and treasure the memories that we made that day. Here is a video of him singing it.

BEN'S PUMPKIN SONG


Ben and I taking a tractor ride that same day.