"Tenderly"

This is a song that I would like more time with. It has some nice challenges, and a good range, as well. Re-visiting songs would be a project all on its own, and perhaps less inspirational to blog about.

Because life is pretty relaxed here, getting ready for the big fortieth birthday party in less than two weeks, now, we thought we'd take on another rather huge project just to keep us on our toes. So we're painting my daughter's room, which includes receiving delivery of a double bunk bed this week, cleaning out her room (actually almost done), doing some simple muralling over the base painting, and putting everything back in--at least to the point where our library can again double as a guest room. We're accepting volunteers to help, if you're curious.

Today I was discussing with my daughter, again, how we would be realizing her grand room vision, which includes a night sky painted with silver stars, ocean scenes, a room-sized alcove set aside for her American Girl dolls, and a realization of the 'Grandfather Tree'--included gated in area and Guardian Angel. I can state here that I truly believe that we can do all of this. The difficulty comes in convincing her. She can't believe that I can help her to create this dream room, she feels that she needs to somehow do it all herself in order to make her vision a reality.

I struggled to explain what I would be providing in this process: the interface between her vision, and the concrete facts of her room and what was possible (difficulties she might not understand, as well as creative possibilities she might not have thought of). I hope that at least my sincerity came across, though I'm not confident of even that. Not unusually, all of this had me thinking about my own childhood, especially those moments when my vision was not matched in my eyes by my parents, and misunderstandings and bad feelings abounded. I know now that there were likely a lot of things that I did not understand in those arguments, and things that I will never understand. It doesn't make it any easier, knowing that now, as I try to help my daughter understand me.