Note from Louisa

What we will cherish in the future might surprise us.
 
Several weeks ago, I took my eldest daughter to the symphony. They were providing live accompaniment to the Disney film “The Little Mermaid”, a favorite of hers from childhood. I looked around the auditorium and saw myriads of young families there to share the film - an entirely new generation of wonder struck children sitting restlessly in their seats. I also saw a fair number of adults in the audience, some perhaps mothers and daughters, like us, looking to capture something from a time long gone.
 
I knew I was in trouble the second the lights dimmed and the overture began. My eyes welled up as I was transported back to my daughter’s childhood and the constant play of the VHS cassette of the film, so much so that it necessitated its replacement at one point. 
 
Each moment came back full force: not only the movie itself but singing to the soundtrack on the way to soccer practice, taking her to meet the actress who voices The Little Mermaid when she was in town for a concert, coloring infinite underwater scenes of Sebastian, Ariel, and Ursula, The Sea Witch.
 
At one point, my now twenty-eight-year-old daughter reached over and gently placed her hand on my leg. I squeezed and held it there. I remember a time when I thought “not that movie again”, fearing I was on the brink of madness, before acquiescing. Yet, here we were sharing something that transported us both back to a precious time in our shared history and making a new shared memory as well. That music never sounded sweeter.

In those days, I couldn’t have begun to fathom our lives all these years later, sitting there together crying in the dark. I couldn’t have known that hearing those songs played yet again would bring on such nostalgia, connection, and joy.
 
We don’t always get such vibrant reminders of the cherished moments of our lives. And we don’t always know which moments, even the insignificant or tedious ones, are precious memories being made.
 
I almost missed this chance. I had had other things on my schedule for that day.
 
Boy, I’m glad I didn’t.
 
Blessings on your journey,
Louisa