Thanks again

Thanks to noob who sent me the link to a song, "Thanks Again" by Georgia Murray. I've played it so often I can't get it out of my head. Written by James Rushing, re-interpreted by Murray. It's a cover but what a cover. Her deep, resonant voice, a solo guitar and lyrics that have their way with your emotions.

Peter Ho Davies, my advisor at grad school, once named a story collection "Equal Love," questioning if love between parents and children could ever be equal. For how can we ever repay our parents for the years of love and devotion - in my case, the goodnight songs, late-night feeds, homemade cakes and cookies, trips to the library, sewing clothes for my dolls, carrying me down the streets of Hong Kong when I couldn't walk anymore, letting me go away to school even though it was the hardest thing to do.

I think about how wonderful that each of us was a child once, and that one day, we might become parents. Perhaps we'll understand many things only then. Thank God for parents, the ones who try so hard and who love unequivocally. It isn't easy to let them go. Last week, in the large columbrium near Upper Thomson Road, I watched my mother anxiously hunt for the urn holding my grandmother's ashes. My brother and I stood by her as she spoke private words to a small picture of our grandmother. April 16th was her death annivesary. 18 years have passed, but my mother still tears up before the saffron-colored urn. Her mother was her best friend, she once told me.

"Thanks Again"

I've sent bouquets for Mother's Day,
For Father's Day, a shirt and card.
While they came from the heart,
They all fell short of saying how special you both are.
It wasn't ' til I was up and gone,
Married with a couple of kids of my own,
Doing what mamas and daddies do,
That I realized what I must have put you through.
So thanks again for the love in the cradle,
And all of the changes that kept me dry.
And thanks again for the love at our table,
And tannin' my bottom when I told you a lie.
For takin' me fishin' and flyin' my kites,
And tuckin' me in, yes, night after night:
To my beautiful life-long friends,
Hey, Mom and Daddy thanks again.

I'm still a young girl, least I think I am,
But I'm watchin' my own hair turn gray.
And your call last Sunday brought to mind,
That I owe you a debt I can never repay.

So thanks again for worryin' and waitin',
When I started datin' on weekend nights.
And thanks again for the help with my homework,
And sittin' up with me till I got it right.
Your car for the prom, your letters in 'Nam,
But most of all, Daddy, for marryin' Mom:
To my beautiful life long friends,
Hey, Mom and Daddy thanks again.

To my beautiful life long friends,
Hey, Mom and Daddy thanks again.

Posted by Monoceros at April 20, 2006 3:06 PM