Our Song

While it may not be a universal practice, I’ll venture a guess that many loving couples seem to gravitate to a song they then embrace as “theirs.” No one can predict which tune will resonate within two hearts in the bloom of love. It just happens. How often have we witnessed someone turn to their partner with a look of glee and say: “Oh, Honey, they’re playing our song!” It is most touching when uttered by aged romantics, those who’ve weathered the challenges of a lifetime spent together in the name of love. Blessed are the lovers who, on the wings of a sweet melody, are transported past the hard times, the trials and the tears, misunderstandings and mistakes, failures and frailties, back to the beginning, yet again. Blessed are they whose hearts remain forever young, forever warmed by love’s first blush. We’ve all seen them, haven’t we? At a wedding reception, anniversary celebration, some dance hall or ballroom, we’ve all seen a couple or two who snap to attention when “their” song begins to play. They clamber to their feet, and hold each other close. Never mind that their bodies are no longer limber and svelte, their skin no longer supple and smooth, their dance a might stilted. We pay no heed to all of that, for we see the sparkle in their eyes. We are moved by those who cling to each other, swaying with lidded eyes, floating in their private heaven... lost in love’s eternal grandeur.

We are moved.

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I used to share music with Amazing Woman. Songs of passion, hope and longing. I shared the music that reverberated deep inside me, hoping all the while they would resonate within her, too. Perhaps some did...but not for very long. We had a chance, a window of opportunity, to find “our” song. There were so many candidates...
sadly, none survived the test of time.

A few days ago, while in the process of compiling music to share with another, I discovered “our song.” No, neither I nor Amazing Woman chose this tune. It is not the song I would have chosen had I been given a choice. But it is “ours.” Now and forever, this song, as performed by Richard Shindell, shall remain "ours".

MY LOVE WILL FOLLOW YOU
by Buddy & Julie Miller

Take your suitcase and take your heart
Take the train to the boulevard
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
You can try to lose yourself downtown
You can burn all of your bridges down
My love will follow you
My love will follow you

My love will follow you
Down every highway of your soul
You can leave me far behind
My love will be a shadow
Everywhere you go

Close the door, turn in the key
Leave me here like a memory
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
Even on the road that takes you down
Where the chords of human kindness come unwound
My love will follow you
My love will follow you

My love will follow you
Down every highway of your soul
You can leave me far behind
My love will be a shadow
Everywhere you go

If you should go so far
That you cannot get back
You may not remember
But my love will not lose track

So go ahead baby take that train
My love for you will still remain
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
My love will follow you
My love will follow you . . .

Given that songs are meant to be heard, not read, I searched high and low for a link that would allow you, Dear Reader, the opportunity to listen to the song that will haunt me forever. You can click this link to Rhapsody to hear it (but you’ll have to install the “Rhapsody player” first, a minor inconvenience).

My Love Will Follow You by Richard Shindell

(By the way, if any of you can recommend a better alternative for linking to full songs from a blog, I’d appreciate it.)

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All the while, the only thing this sojourner ever wanted was to float magnificently into the mystic...

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Postscript:

Jenn remarked that Richard Shindell's song resonated within her as a mother. That's not surprising. True love, whether between a man and a woman, or a parent and a child, never dies...

Here's another song (Dar Williams' "The One Who Knows") I consider to contain "universal" truths:

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