The first installment of the year is here!
Welcome to Life Songs. I am thrilled to be a part of a life stories project with eleven other talented photographers! In this series, we will be documenting our lives with a different theme song each month. The images in the posts will be taken from a less traditional approach, showcasing “real life” in our own ways. This month’s inspiration is “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out” by Cat Stevens. It might be worth finding it and having a listen as you browse our blog circle! When you’re done, see the link to the next photographer in the circle at the end of this post
I had never heard the song “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out” before this month’s assignment, but once I listened to it, I was hooked!! I love the message. Here is a snippet of some of the lyrics:
“Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
‘Cause there’s a million things to be
You know that there are
And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
‘Cause there’s a million ways to go
You know that there are
You can do what you want
The opportunity’s on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
you see ah ah ah
its easy ah ah ah“
I adore how the song encourages people to be whoever they want and to basically dream big. It’s something that I hope I’m doing a decently good job of instilling into my girls. They have the most wonderful imaginations, and I hope that they never lose the ability to dream and carve out their own way… be whoever it is that they want to be and go wherever it is that they want to go. I just want them to be happy and to remember that they are the navigators of their own destinies!
Sometimes, like the day in which I took these pictures, they come up with crazy and fun ideas and execute them without our help at all. We encourage these creative endeavors and facilitate them in any way we can. This particular day, my oldest, Ansley, had decided she wanted to put on a “show”. It’s a pretty common theme in our house! She often tells us that she wants to grow up and be a dancer.
(Disclaimer: my house is messy. But that’s sort of in keeping with the lifestyle approach, right? That’s what I’m telling myself. Feel free to look past the mess, please and thank you.)
By around 10am, Ansley had drawn up fliers and taped them all over our house to let us know that her show was to be that morning:
She assembled her audience all by herself, including a couple of chairs for her father and I, in our kitchen/breakfast nook space:
Behind where she was to dance, she put up cue cards as reminders of her dance steps:
And of course, she couldn’t have a show without making admission tickets. In this case, our “tickets” were stickers that she made herself.
Little sister HK was the “announcer”, as she called it, and introduced Ansley in grand fashion:
And out she came to begin her show! She danced and sang her heart out. Notice little sister there behind her, hanging like a monkey on the door knob.
It must have looked like fun, putting on this fabulous show – so HK decided to take a turn in the spotlight, too. I love Ansley’s exasperated expression!
They both took turns singing and dancing and playing the guitar:
And then the show wound down, and it was time to end the performace. Here they are collaborating about how to make their grand exit.
And, DONE.
We clapped and gave them standing ovations, and told them how fabulous they were. And they WERE fabulous. I hope they always remember how special and wonderful they are, and how they can be any thing they want to be. I hope they remember to dream BIG and to love life.
Thank you for viewing my Life Songs post, and please visit Louise Glendon to see her take on this month’s song!
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