Memories

It is ironic that the last few months I have been plagued by memories and feelings of getting old and life passing me by.

For my September Outlawz challenge I had chosen the song Memory from Cats and had chosen an image from the sponsor SBLeigh. At first I wasn't sure how to put them together, except for the cats link.

I used Microsoft paint to colour the image, much better than my colouring efforts, but would like it to look a more realistic paint effect, so will keep playing with it.  The lamp is cut with my Cricut Joy, using Cricut design space, the moon is an image from Digitalshesaid and cut with circle die, backing paper from Baker Ross, mounted on dark blue cardstock.

"Midnight, not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan

Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can dream of the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Every street lamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters and the street lamp sputters
And soon it will be morning

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin

Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale, cold smell of morning
A street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning

Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun"

I think that the illustration represents the song, particularly the first verse and the cats signify it is from the musical cats. The song "was written for the 1981 musical Cats, where it is sung primarily by the character Grizabella as a melancholic remembrance of her glamorous past and as a plea for acceptance" (Wikipedia).  The song was based on a poem by T.S Eliot called Rhapsody on a Windy Night

As I said at the beginning I have been feeling a lot like this myself, although I don't think I had a glamourous past!  We have to accept the old days are gone, take each day as it comes and find the beauty in each day.  There is however nothing wrong with having memories, they make us who we are.

You can listen to the song on You Tube 

 

Music

POSTED ON 11TH SEPTEMBER 2023 BY JANESHAW

I have just written a blog about my card challenge linked to a song, I can’t share it until Sunday.

On the theme of music we attended an outdoor screening of Mamma Mia on Saturday. There is just something about music that speaks to you and many of the lyrics are so poignant. A few years ago I wrote a blog based on The Winner Takes it All (follow link) Listen here. The songs of Abba are all so powerful and all tell a story.

This week Slipping Through my Fingers is definitely my song; Listen here

“Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I’m losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I’m glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what’s in her mind
Each time I think I’m close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she’s gone, there’s that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can’t deny

What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(Slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn’t
And why, I just don’t know

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what’s in her mind
Each time I think I’m close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile”

My daughter has just started at college doing A levels and I feel so left behind.

Then there is Waterloo; Listen here

“My my
At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender
Oh yeah
And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself
Waterloo – I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo – Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo – Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo – Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo – Finally facing my Waterloo

My my
I tried to hold you back, but you were stronger
Oh yeah
And now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Waterloo – I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo – Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo – Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo – Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo – Finally facing my Waterloo

So how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Waterloo – I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo – Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo – Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo – Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo – Finally facing my Waterloo”

Definitely about accepting our fate and making peace with it. “I was defeated, you won the war,” I was defeated by my illness and it won the war. “Couldn’t escape if I wanted to,” very true, if there was a way to escape I would have found it by now. “Knowing my fate is to be with you,” accepting this is the life I have. “Finally facing my Waterloo” Acceptance and facing my battle and accepting it’s fate.

Finally for today anyway! I have a Dream; Listen here

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream

About learning to cope and having your dreams to get through reality and face anything.

“I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see”

This is a good verse to try and live by.

I can lose myself in these songs, though they often make me cry too! With my hearing loss I do struggle to hear a lot of music, but if I can connect it to my hearings aids, it is great. I am getting new hearing aids next week, so I am hoping that music will be a bit more accessible.

Watching the film and singing along with the local community was a great experience and united all generations from tiny babies to people older than me!! The Winner Takes it All is still my favourite and a most powerful song.