Those of you who know me know that I write lyrics about life. That has always been my lane.
I’ve shared many different life moments through my words and then brought them into videos and streaming platforms. I write about motherhood, fatherhood, grandparents, humor, and life reflections.
I write for special occasions like weddings, as well as for motivation and inspiration. I also write about quieter emotional states, like numbness, indifference, and the in-between feelings that are harder to define. Life is not one-note, so I never wanted my writing to be either.
But no matter what I am writing about, I try to end on a hopeful note. That matters to me. There is already so much negativity in the world, so much division and harshness in the way people speak to each other. I do not want to be part of that.
I am not perfect, and I make mistakes, but I'm committed to contributing something better. When I write, I want to add a sense of understanding, a sense of connection, and something that lifts rather than divides.
These Lyrics are Very Personal to Me. It's The Anthem For Anyone Who is Not Done
This lyric video is different for me.
This lyric video, titled "I’m Not Done," has become my daily reset. It is the voice I turn to when I need to remind myself who I am and where I am still going.
When I wrote the lyrics, I made a point of speaking across the years. I mention the ages of 20, 30, 50, and over 60. That last one is me. I am living that line.
At the heart of it all is one message. I’m not done.
That's why I called it that. I needed to say it clearly and without apology.
There is a line in the chorus that says, “Don’t count my candles, count my sparks.” That line carries everything. It is the heartbeat of what I am trying to say. Life is not measured only in years. It is measured in energy, in passion, and in what still burns inside you.
“It ain’t over till it’s over.” That idea has lasted because it is true, but only if we decide it is.
And that is really what this lyric video is about.
I did have older women and men in mind when I wrote it. I thought about the quiet moments when people start to wonder if their time has passed or if they should begin to step back. But this message is not only for them. It is for anyone, at any age, who needs the reminder that they still get to choose.
Because that is what I believe. We choose.
We choose whether we are done or not.
And when we make that choice with intention and with passion, we begin to move differently. We show up differently. We go after things we may have talked ourselves out of before.
That is where this came from.
It is not just something I wrote.
It is something I feel and live, and I dedicate it to all of us still pushing forward, doing what we find joy in.
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I wrote these lyrics on April 17th, 2026, after realizing that while I had already created several wedding lyric videos, I had never really touched the mother-son dance. I have written about the father-daughter connections, and it pulled at something deep, but this… this felt different.
I wanted it to feel like something a mother would quietly carry inside her. Not polished. Not perfect. Just honest. Almost like a page from a diary.
This One Wasn’t Easy For Me to Write
As a mother of four adult sons and a step-mom of two more, I thought the words would come quickly. But they didn’t.
I sat there for a bit, unsure how to even begin, which doesn’t happen to me all that often. So I did what I always do when I can’t quite find my way in… I closed my eyes and pictured my boys.
Not just as they are now, but as they’ve been.
I let my mind go all the way back. To the moment they were first placed in my arms… to the baby years… the childhood years… the boyhood years… and then to the men they’ve become.
And somewhere in all of that, the feeling finally came through clearly.
When I look at my sons, I don’t see one version of them.
I see all of them.
I see the scraped knees. The sleepy eyes. The laughter. The learning. The growing. I see everything layered together. And even now, after all these years, there are still moments when I catch a glimpse of the baby they once were. Not constantly, but just enough to remind me that those days don’t actually leave you. Not when you’re a mother.
And that’s really what this song became about.
Because life does what it’s supposed to do. Our children grow up. They become independent. They build lives that are their own. That’s how it’s meant to be. But none of that erases what came before. It doesn’t replace it… It adds to it.
So when I think about a mother standing on that dance floor with her son on his wedding day, I don’t see her dancing with just the man in front of her.
She’s the only one in that room who’s danced with all three.
The child. The boy. And the man.
That’s something no one else shares in quite the same way. A wife may know the man. Sometimes she might know the boy if they grew up together. But the mother… she’s the one who carries all of it. Every version. Every stage.
And that’s what I wanted these lyrics to hold.
That quiet, overwhelming knowing… that when she looks at him, it’s never just who he is now. It’s who he’s always been.
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Since I write lyrics about life, I tend to cover many angles: motherhood, grandmothers, children, memories, reflections on growing older, and the emotional layers that come with it all.
The Story Behind The Lyrics "Grandpa's Diamonds"
Lately, I realized I've written quite a bit from those above perspectives, but I hadn't really shared the voice of a grandfather. Not deeply, anyway.
So I felt it was time to write something that touched that part of life, too, the relationship between grandfathers and grandsons, and the kind of quiet wisdom that can be passed down through that bond.
I wrote these lyrics on April 6th, 2026.
The Inspiration Behind The Lyrics
Dad lived into his late seventies. His life was like many, filled with goodness, trials, and tribulations. While he could be tough, he was always fair and had a rare ability to recognize others' potential and could spot those “diamonds in the rough.” If there was even a small spark of goodness in someone, he could see it, and many times he chose to acknowledge it.
As his daughter, I understood that side of him well. I believe he knew we all have a purpose, even if we sometimes need guidance to find the right path. However, staying real here, he would never talk like this and would probably just nod and move on if I ever said this to him!
My father, like every Dad, had his own beliefs. He made his mistakes, like anyone, but he was also shaped in those early years by the people who saw something in him worth believing in.
In his very early years, Mom told me stories about how certain people helped steer Dad in the right direction. But honestly, it was my mother who was his rock and motivation. I often wonder how different things might have been without those who chose to see his diamond in the rough. He was, in many ways, as my lyrics say, a recipient of grace, and he passed that grace along when he could.
This song reflects that perspective. Through Grandpa's voice, the quiet strength of a man who looks beyond a person's surface and exercises compassion over judgment. However, again, just being real, Dad wasn't a saint, and like all of us, he could be judgmental, but when it came to spotting something special in someone, he could see it.
The lyrics are a reminder that sometimes the most meaningful impact we can have is simply to see the goodness in others and help them see it in themselves.
Because one day, it could be us who needs that same grace.
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I wrote these lyrics about a father-daughter dance on her wedding day, January 14th, 2026.
A Father-Daughter Lyric Story I Needed to Tell
This father-daughter wedding dance song came from a place that felt both deeply personal and quietly universal. I didn't just want to write words that sounded beautiful—I wanted to tell a story that would feel like a lifetime unfolding in just a few minutes.
When I sat down to write, I kept coming back to one idea: what if we could hear both of them? Not just the father standing there on one of the most emotional days of his life, but the daughter too—her memories, her voice, her heart woven right alongside his.
So I built the lyric from both perspectives. His love. Her reflection. His letting go… and yet, not letting go at all.
This song is available on various streaming platforms, including Spotify. Here it is on Spotify.
From Dad's First Moment to His Daughter's Wedding Day
There's a line early on that still sits with me:
"I remember when I found out you were you."
That feeling… it says everything. The moment a father realizes his life has changed forever, even before he holds her in his arms.
From there, the words travel through time. A newborn wrapped in a blanket. Sleepless nights. Growing pains. Teenage years. Quiet pride. Unspoken worries. And all the small, ordinary moments that somehow become everything when you look back on them.
I wanted it to feel like memory itself—how it doesn't move in straight lines, but in feelings.
And then suddenly… we're here.
A wedding day.
Grown-Up Shoes and a Wedding Dress - The Name I Gave This Lyric
The title came to me almost like a whisper: Grown-up Shoes and a Wedding Dress.
Because that's what this moment is, isn't it?
A father looking at his little girl, and at the same time, seeing the woman she's become.
She's standing there in grown-up shoes… ready to step into her own life.
And yet, to him, she will always be the little girl he first held in his arms.
The Words That Say So Much - Verse 2
There's a part in the lyric—verse two—that, to me, holds the heart of everything I was trying to say. It's the father speaking, but it's also something I think so many fathers feel and don't always put into words:
They say I’m giving you away today
That’s not true
You are forever my little girl
Even while dancing in these grown-up shoes
I hold you with my arms
But it’s my heart that carries you
For the rest of our lives and even beyond
I am your dad
And that’s our unbreakable bond
That idea… that love doesn't get handed off or replaced—it simply grows. It stretches to make room for new love, new beginnings.
Why This One Is Personal to Me
These words were shaped by the love I shared with my own father.
He didn't dance—at least, not until much later in his life. We didn't dance at my wedding. And he's no longer here. But somehow, writing this brought me closer to him again. It gave me a way to imagine what that moment might have felt like, had we shared it.
There's something about writing like this that reaches beyond time. It lets you revisit, re-feel, and even re-create moments you wish you could have had.
I know if Dad were here today, we would share that dance.
A Dance That Holds a Lifetime
In the end, that's what I wanted this father-daughter wedding dance song to be.
Not just a dance.
But a lifetime… held in a few minutes.
A father remembering.
A daughter reflecting.
Both of them standing in the same moment, carrying everything that came before it.
And maybe, for anyone listening, it becomes their story too.
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I wrote the lyrics to this song, "Looking At My Hands," on March 19th, 2026, but in many ways, the story began decades earlier.
The First Verse Inspired By My True Story of Mom Helping Me Move Into My First Apartment in 1979 - But It Applies to Many Women!
The first verse is not just imagined — it's a memory I've carried with me all my life.
I was 19 years old in 1979 when I moved to Toronto to go to school, sharing my very first apartment with a friend.
It was only a few hours from home, but it felt like a whole new world had opened up in front of me. I remember the excitement, the independence, and the quiet realization that life was beginning to unfold in a new and exciting way.
And I will never forget my mother being there with me.
We unpacked boxes together, cleaned (we were cleaning maniacs lol), and set up that apartment piece by piece. There was something so simple about it at the time — just the physical act of lifting things, putting them in place, beginning a new chapter.
But looking back now, that moment holds so much more meaning. It was the beginning of everything.
That verse, for me, is almost a diary entry. It takes me right back to that young woman standing at the start of her life, not yet knowing all that she would one day carry.
On a side note, I start the song with the words:
"Looking at my hands, remembering what they've lifted, my pens and my dreams, and how those early weights shifted"
These words reference what my soul knew it should be doing, writing, and how those dreams shifted to the practical side of life.
Thinking back, it was the world we lived in: be practical, think about a career, not your artsy-fartsy dreams.
Well, it ain't over till it's over! So here's my lyric video :)
The Verses About Youth and Ambition, Marriage and Family
From there, the song moves through the stages so many of us know.
The years of ambition and growth, when life feels fast and full; meeting new people, building a career, stepping into independence with excitement and hope.
And then, as life unfolds, it brings love, relationships, marriage, and children. Each chapter arrives naturally, almost effortlessly at first. Yet, each one brings new layers of responsibility and new forms of "lifting" that we never fully anticipated when we were just starting out.
That's really what this song is about.
It's not just the events themselves, but what comes with them. The unseen weight.
The emotional and mental strength required to hold it all together. The quiet resilience that builds over time as life becomes more complex.
In the beginning, the lifting is physical — boxes, furniture, the pieces of a new life. But as the years go on, what we carry becomes much deeper than that. It becomes about people, about love, about responsibility, about showing up again and again for the life we've created.
And then something shifts.
The Verse About How The Lifting Will Now Be Experienced by Our Grown Children
We begin to see the next generation stepping into those same roles.
Our children begin to carry their own weights, to build their own lives, to face their own challenges. And in that moment, there's both a sense of understanding and a quiet passing of the torch; a recognition that this is the rhythm of life.
The thread that runs through it all is that simple image: looking at our hands.
All that they've held.
All that they've lifted.
All that they've carried — often without us even realizing the strength it took.
I Gave This Song, These Lyrics, A Positive Ending
And in the end, I wanted this song to land somewhere peaceful and positive. Not in hardship, but in reflection. In that later chapter of life where we can look back — from that young woman in her first apartment in 1979, to the woman we are today — and recognize the fullness of it all.
Not perfectly lived, but fully lived.
And in that reflection, there is a quiet kind of victory.
Not the kind that needs to be announced, but the kind you feel when you realize… You did it. You're still standing. That's a win in my books.
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I wrote these lyrics on March 8th, 2026, as part of a compilation of couples' love songs I'm putting together.
Writing couples' lyrics has always been a challenge for me — not because I don't believe in love or feel it, but because it's so easy for the love words to slip into greeting-card territory and sound cheesy.
Last Week's Song Lyric Debut
As I mentioned last week in my article about Marry Me Fool, I try to tell a story in every lyric I write. That's how it feels real to me.
I've been writing since I was eight years old, and for me, everything has always come from a real and human perspective.
Sure, I can write more roundabout lyrics — the kind that are less on the nose, more metaphorical or flowery, and make you think. I do that sometimes, too. But when I'm telling a story, it has to hit my spirit first. That's the only way I can put it down on paper and eventually shape it into music.
I still question myself sometimes about whether I should write differently. Every writer has their own approach, and many styles work beautifully. But I'm old enough now to know who I am and how I write best.
Even if I haven't lived the exact experience I'm writing about, I need to find the realness inside it. Once I feel that connection, the words start to come to life.
How You Stood Me Up Came to Life
So, back to You Stood Me Up.
This is a story lyric. The only way I could write it was to imagine the story and place myself inside it.
That's when the words begin to take shape for me.
They don't always come easily. Some people have lyrics pour out of them, but for me, it's work, the best, most fulfilling work!
I'm always trying to tie everything together from beginning to end — making sure the verses lead somewhere and that the chorus carries the heart of the story.
With these lyrics, I worked on it carefully from verse one through to the outro, ensuring everything connected.
The story itself came to me as a simple moment between two people.
They had planned a date. She was sitting in a restaurant by the window, quietly sipping her tea and waiting for him.
When he arrived and saw her, he suddenly felt like he wasn't good enough. His nerves got the best of him, and instead of going inside, he convinced himself he should just leave. In his mind, it would be easier to stand her up than risk disappointing her.
So he turned and walked away.
But as he was leaving, he tripped over the curb just as she was coming out of the restaurant.
She reached down, grabbed his hand, and helped him up.
That tiny moment — awkward and unexpected — became the beginning of a lifelong relationship. And that simple story is what became the heart of these lyrics.
Writing lyrics like this is always a balance between storytelling and honesty. But when a story feels alive, when it flows the way you hoped it would, it's one of the best feelings there is.
Listen to How I Put This Song Together:
Resonance and the Joy of Writing
My husband genuinely relates to the personal stories in my lyrics, especially those about my parents. He looks forward to every new lyric I write.
He was especially proud of my poetry and lyrics book — a compilation of over 50 years of my writing, dating back to 1968, that's available on Amazon. Of course, he's biased, but his opinion carries weight because he knows our life story and many of the experiences that shape what I write.
For me, though, I try to best myself.
I'm not interested in competing with other writers. I just can't. I'm simply not built that way.
I have always competed with myself.
Almost every time I finish a lyric, he'll say, "How did you write one better than the last one?" When he says that, I sometimes think, well… maybe I achieved my goal again.
But I don't write for compliments. However, validation from him means a lot because he knows our life and my heart, and that matters.
I'll Write Until My Last Breath No Matter Who Reads It or Doesn't Read It - I Have To.
I write lyrics because I love writing about the human emotional experience. I'll keep writing until my last breath because it's a part of my soul.
I have to write lyrics — stories about life. Or poems — stories about life.
If I were stranded on a desert island and someone somehow left me with a pad of paper and a pen, I’d write until the ink ran out. And when the ink was gone, I’d write the words in the sand.
That's just how essential writing the human experience is to me.
This particular lyric video, Echoes of a Quiet Room, meant something special because this is the lyric I wrote about my parents' passing. I cried from beginning to end just writing it.
It comes from a real place, so deep and painful that when my hubby and my brother heard it, they cried.
There's something beautiful about sharing this depth of love with someone else. A love and loss they feel along with you. You look into their eyes, and you both know the pain and the gratefulness.
So in my mind, that was the one to beat — and the only person I compete with is myself.
When I finished You Stood Me Up, I called hubby in and said, "Oh my God, you have to listen to this."
He listened, and his mouth literally dropped open.
He said, "Wow! That's the best one."
Of course, he says that every time I write something, but hearing it this time felt different. The story flowed exactly the way I had imagined it — the meeting of two people and the quiet suggestion of a lifetime together.
The Music and Creative Side
The music creation isn't easy either.
Even with digitally produced music, composition takes structure, input, and attention to every nuance. However, if you want to hit a button and go with "whatever," anyone can do that. I can't do that since I'm bringing my own words to life.
For me, the message is everything. The words have to be paired with the right sound and emotional tone.
Sometimes I get lucky, and it comes together in five attempts. Other times it takes 18 or even 24 hours of adjusting and rebuilding until it finally feels right.
It can be frustrating. In fact, it's more frustrating than writing! Because it must reflect my personal intention on the meaning of the words I've written.
But when it finally clicks — like it did with You Stood Me Up — it feels like a gift.
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I have always found love songs difficult to write.
Not because I don't believe in love — I absolutely do — but because it's so easy for a love song to slide into something overly sweet or just plain corny. A few too many dreamy lines, and suddenly it starts sounding like something that belongs inside a greeting card.
That's never really been my style.
Even when I was young, writing about couples' love wasn't what I naturally reached for. Most people enjoy writing poems or lyrics about romance, but I usually find myself writing about other parts of life, emotions, observations, and the things people quietly go through.
Lately, though, I've been pushing myself a little.
I decided to build a small collection of songs centered around relationships, weddings, and love stories. And when I sat down to write one, I realized the only way it would feel natural for me was to approach it as a story, not just a description of love.
That's how Marry Me – Fool began - It's become my husband's favorite so far of all that I've written:
A Moment on a Train Platform
I wrote these lyrics on March 3rd, 2026, as part of that little challenge I gave myself.
Since I've been married for over forty years, trying to step back into those early romantic feelings can feel a bit strange. Love deepens over time. It becomes steadier and quieter. It's beautiful, but it's different from those younger emotions when everything feels sudden and electric.
So instead of trying to recreate the feeling directly, I imagined a moment.
A crowded train station.
People are moving in every direction, all focused on their own lives. And amid all that movement, a man notices a woman standing on the platform.
Something about her catches his attention immediately. Maybe it's the way she carries herself. Maybe it's something he can't explain. But he knows he doesn't want to lose sight of her.
So he pushes through the crowd and boards the same train car she's getting on.
They don't speak during the ride. In fact, most of the story unfolds in silence — two strangers sharing the same space while he quietly hopes for a moment to connect.
That moment finally comes when the train reaches its stop.
He steps off, turns back toward her, and reaches out his hand, asking if she'd like help stepping down.
Those few words are the first time they have ever spoken to each other.
By the end of the song, five years have passed, and they're still together.
And it all started with a glance across a crowded platform and a quiet train ride where almost nothing was said.
I think stories like that stay with us because they tap into something many of us have wondered about at some point — those moments when someone walks into view and, for reasons we can't fully explain, they capture our attention completely.
Writing Marry Me – Fool reminded me that sometimes love stories don't begin with big declarations.
Sometimes they begin with something much simpler.
A crowded station.
A quiet train ride.
And a hand reaching out at exactly the right time.
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I wrote Our Real Life Movie on February 22, 2026, and I'm smiling a little as I type that—because this song started as a challenge to myself, and I wasn't at all sure how it would turn out.
The Way I Was Able To Write This Kind of Song!
Writing songs about a couple's love is the hardest thing for me. Which is funny, really, because I've been married for forty years.
You'd think it would be easy. But writing about brand-new love, those early feelings, that fresh spark, feels far away sometimes. Not gone. Just lived-in. And trying to capture that without sounding corny, forced, or like I'm missing the emotional mark has always been tricky for me.
Originally, my goal was to write a first-dance wedding song. That was the intention. But once I sat down with it, I realized I needed a way in—something I could emotionally connect to. That's when the idea shifted.
Using My Crazy Knack For Remembering Movie Lines as That Spark!
I decided to approach it differently, drawing on something that has stayed with me my whole life: movie lines.
I'm Gen Jones, a late boomer (1954-1965), and I've been lucky enough to grow up with some incredible films—especially rom-coms from the 80s and 90s.
Certain lines never leave you. They lodge themselves in your heart, your memory, your understanding of love. So I started weaving them into the song—some directly, some indirectly—until the project took on a life of its own.
Nineteen movie-related lines later, what started out feeling difficult became fun. Here it is! It's upbeat and fun.
It wasn't easy. Not even close. But it was the good kind of hard—the kind where you don't mind taking your time because you're enjoying the process.
I didn't know if I could pull it together, and I didn't rush it. I let it become what it wanted to be. It took me about 2 days to write these lyrics; that's long for me. Oh, and of course, I design all the artwork and create all the videos. Lots of fun work. Lucky, I love it so much!
I've Been Writing Since I Was 8 Years Old - I'll Write Until I Drop :)
I've been writing since 1968, since I was eight years old, and I still never know where the next project will come from or how it will unfold. Some things arrive fully formed. Others need to be coaxed, challenged, and played with. This one asked me to stretch a bit.
I have written song lyrics from a fictional place before; this one, Elvis Saved My Life, was a fun project I gave myself in the late 1990s/2000s.
Creating the vocals and music took time. I'm fussy about emphasis. Certain words need to land just right, or the emotion doesn't work for me. When it finally came together, it felt right—like the song knew what it was doing before I did.
This song became a puzzle, and I love that part. If you feel like dissecting it and spotting the references, I've left the answers below so you can see how many you caught. I hope you have fun with it.
And if you're getting married—congratulations. Truly. If you choose to dance to this song, please link it for me. I would genuinely love to see it become part of someone else's real-life movie.
That thought alone makes the whole challenge worth it.
Here are the Movie Lines Referenced in The Lyrics (Directly or Indirectly):
1.
"For a million tiny little reasons" – A Million Little Things
2.
"I'll never let you go" – Titanic
3.
"I'll never miss a thing" – Armageddon
4.
"There's a time for everything, now it's our time to dance" –
Footloose (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
5.
"You'll never be in a corner" – Dirty Dancing
6.
"Turning fifty shades of grey" – Fifty Shades of Grey
7.
"We now write the script for our never-ending story" – The
NeverEnding Story
8.
"Etched in our notebook" – The Notebook
9.
"Our tale of two cities" – A Tale of Two Cities
10.
"Through pure serendipity" – Serendipity
11.
"I jump, you jump" – Titanic
12.
"I choose us" – The Family Man
13.
"I wanted it to be you" – You've Got Mail
14.
"Was like coming home" – Sleepless in Seattle
15.
"It was like I had always known you" – Sleepless in Seattle
16.
"We found our passion" – Flashdance
17.
"We certainly made it happen" – Flashdance
18.
"Oh what a feeling" – Flashdance
19.
"Into our own ever after" – Ever After Bonus Musical Nod (not a
movie)
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All my life, I've said this sentence without thinking twice: my children save my life every day. It was never a slogan or something I tried to turn into meaning. It was simply the truth as it lived in me — steady, quiet, and constant. I realize that's a lot of pressure to put on our kids, but nevertheless, it's an honest feeling.
When I wrote the song My Children Save My Life, I realized I wasn't just writing about my children. I was writing to them. I was also finally giving words to something I later discovered so many parents, especially mothers, feel but rarely articulate.
Over time, I've seen versions of this same sentiment shared again and again on social media: my kids saved me, my children gave my life purpose, I wouldn't be here without them. Different words, same heartbeat.
That's when I knew this feeling deserved its own song.
As you read this article, you'll find some of the lyrics I wrote for this song filtered throughout.
Wanting to Hand Them an Easy World - Yah, I Know, It's Not Easy!
I want my children to have an easy life. Not a perfect one. Just an easier one.
When they were little, and even now, I want to hand them all the answers. I want to give them the map, the shortcuts, and the warnings written clearly so they can bypass that broken ground altogether.
I want to keep them close. I want to block the shadows. I want to win every battle for them so they can stay peaceful.
I know, logically, that children are supposed to struggle sometimes, that challenges shape them, that lessons learned firsthand matter more than anything I could explain.
But emotionally? Like many parents, I don't want my children to suffer. When they struggle, I don't watch from a distance (but sometimes I'm forced to), I dig deep alongside them.
Is that selfish? Maybe a little.
If their life is easy, mine feels easier too. But mostly it comes from love. From instinct. From that deep, almost unbearable desire to protect their spirit.
That's where the song begins — with that wanting. That hope that if I could just give them the book of life, filled with every secret to an easier road, they'd never have to stumble.
The truth is, that wouldn't work, because nine times out of ten, the likelihood they'd listen is slim to nil. But that's ok too, because it's evidence that, in the end, it's up to them.
Life, of course, doesn't follow the maps I draw.
Watching Them Become Who They Are
One of the hardest truths of parenting is realizing that no matter how much wisdom you carry, life still belongs to your children. They have to live it themselves. I've watched them stumble. I've watched them rise again. I've watched them make choices that require courage, quiet courage, the kind that doesn't announce itself.
There's a line in the song that holds a complicated truth for me: I'm grateful for their strength, yet at the very same time, I hope they never really need it.
That's the paradox of being a parent. You want your children to be capable and resilient, but you don't want life to demand too much of them.
What humbles me most is realizing they don't need my book of life after all. They don't need every secret written down. They find paths I don't see. They bypassed broken ground, which I thought was unavoidable. And in doing so, they teach me something I'm still learning.
Choosing Faith Over Fear
Parenting is a constant balancing act between faith and fear. Fear wants control. Faith asks for trust. Trust is not passive — it's an active choice, one I have to make again and again. Letting go doesn't mean loving less. It means loving differently.
I'm still practicing. I'll never be a pro at letting them go. But even in silence, I feel their hearts. I send them peace. I remind myself that I'm not their answer — I'm the road that helps them through. I'm the doorway into living, not the path they have to choose.
My children don't just shape my life.
They save my life.
Every single day.
And that truth deserved its own song. It was my Valentine's Day gift to them this year.
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Sometimes, I think about that little girl I used to be—the one who played with dolls and held imaginary tea parties, who believed the world was full of endless possibilities.
There was a gentle magic in those early years, a quiet wonder that filled my room and the pages of bedtime stories. I remember being unscarred.
A Walking Doll Gift From Dad When I Was Seven
When I was seven, my father had been away for a while, and when he returned, he brought me a gift I still vividly remember: a giant doll, almost half my height, with a name—Shirley.
I was completely taken aback by this amazing toy. Shirley wasn't just a doll; she was a walking doll. You could hold her hand or arm, and as you walked, her legs would move forward as if she were walking alongside you.
I remember the awe of watching her move, the sense that she was alive in a way no toy had ever been. That feeling—the magic, the companionship, the sheer possibility—stayed with me for years, and it's exactly what inspired the term "walking doll" when I wrote this song.
As life went on, Shirley stopped walking. I grew taller, my imagination quieted, and somewhere along the way, I stopped letting her talk. Pretend tea parties became memories. She became a decoration, a silent reminder of a part of me I had tucked away.
I Grew Bigger And Stopped Her From Talking
In my twenties, thirties, and forties, I thought I had to leave that little girl behind. I told myself I was practical, independent, and strong.
Dolls were for children, not for grown-ups. But life has a way of nudging you back to what you need most. Every heartbreak, every challenge, every moment that shook me whispered: remember the unscarred me. Remember the one who imagined freely, who believed in possibility, who saw the world as full of magic.
Now, at this stage of my life, I realize I don't have to hide her anymore. I've stopped worrying about what others might think when they see me tap into my creativity, my imagination, my artsy, playful side. What matters is being true to myself. Being free again, as I was when I was little, is my gift to myself.
This Song is About Acknowledging Our Young Imagination
This song, The Living Story (I Remember Being Unscarred), is my ode to that girl in the light pink dress.
I chose the color pink in these lyrics and in the lyric video for two reasons: one, because when I was a little girl, pink was one of my three favorite colors; and two, most importantly, because my granddaughter's favorite color is pink.
In the lyric video, I dressed both the grown woman and the young girl in pink to reflect that connection. She's still there on the shelf, waiting patiently for me to remember her, for me to reach for her when the world feels heavy, when life leaves its marks. And now, I do. I drink pretend tea again. I let myself imagine. I let myself create. That girl, that spark, is alive in me, and she always will be.
At 65 Years Old, I'm Acknowledging The Unscarred Me Once Again, as Talked About in the Lyrics I Wrote in this Song
Those who know me know I've been writing for a long time. I started writing poems and song lyrics in 1968, when I was eight years old, and I've written on and off ever since. In 2019, I published a book on Amazon featuring fifty years of my writings. Life often pulled me away from writing.
Now, at 65, I've made a personal decision: I will honor my spirit and write as much as I can for as long as I live. This is my choice—not to be special, but to be true to who I am, what my soul calls me to do. For me, it's writing. For others, it may be art, music, or building something meaningful.
The truth is, knowing ourselves is the hardest thing we do. I've come back to my true self, and I plan to live out the last third of my life fully aligned with who I am at heart.
Whether anyone reads or listens to my writings is secondary; it's ok if people don't. It's just something I have to do; I have to get it out. I hope you can release the true you, or maybe you already have!
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
