The Muse in Me

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less, but to dream more, to dream all the time." Marcel Proust

Hello MOMS (Mothers of Musicians). In my last blog, I promised that I would tell you about the young musicians in my family. But for me to tell their story, I must also include mine, because our tale is as tangled as tree roots in a dense forest.

The characters in my story are as follows: Me - Donna Byrd, my husband - Bill Byrd; our children, John, oldest son, age 27, Natalie, oldest daughter, age 25, Stacey, middle daughter, age 23, Jeremy, middle son, age 21, Isaaca, youngest daughter, age 19, Cody, youngest of all, 17 and my niece, Brittany, age 25. With the exception of John and Cody, all the above mentioned children are in a band called "The Bridges". John eats, breathes and sleeps music and Cody loves and appreciates it. However, a few years ago he asked me if it would be OK if he didn't become a musician. Think he was feeling any pressure?

My husband Bill and I are educated people that came of age in a post-hippie era. I remember that one of my regrets was that I wasn't quite old enough to go to Woodstock (I was twelve) and too young to have friends who actually died in Vietnam. We grew up on the back side of the Jesus Movement and reaped the benefits of civil rights without having to participate in a lunch counter sit-in or know someone who knew someone who was killed in a church bombing. I didn't particularly care about women's rights, because around my family, women had plenty of rights. We never had a “cause” because we were born just a little too late in mid-twentieth century history to claim one for ourselves. All we had was the residue of the passion: the music.

Now, I'm not one to go around adopting causes for myself, but the music that became voice for the 1960's and 70's culture became my soundtrack too. I vicariously lived through that emotional time through the signature music of the day. It was odd, but a certain type of "feeling" came over me while I listened to it. I’m not sure, but it felt like stored up passion waiting to be released: creativity?

What is a creative feeling? It is important to recognize "one" because one day, you may need to sort through your children's emotions or feelings and help them understand patterns of creativity in their lives. I could listen to certain songs and get an overwhelming desire to go and create a lyric, a poem or story. My outlet for this was manifest in what I chose for my college major. At first, I was a drama major, then later an English major with a writing concentration, all venues for creativity.

For years, this creative "feeling" has chased me. I may be sitting on my front porch, seeing the way the cloud shadows and sun bounce around on Coldwater Mountain and hear the opening line for an essay or book. I can be listening to a Celtic tune and all of a sudden, sense the presence of a creative muse in the room with me. It’s like I’m shaking hands in an agreement with something as ancient as God Himself. A few years ago, I felt this at church. The musicians and singers on stage were singing a song that reminded me of an old Celtic hymn. Immediately, that feeling of touching something elusive and at the same time, ageless, gripped me. I asked God what that feeling was. I told him I had experienced it since I was a little girl. I suppose all you have to do is ask, because He told me it was the Spirit of the Ancient of Days, the spirit of God that created the earth. Talk about creativity! If we can plug into that type of creativity, we become muses ourselves.

This is where my story meets my children’s. I decided to become a muse for them. I wanted to get them in touch with the creativity of the Ancient of Days. I wanted to teach them to be in awe of that creative “feeling” and to give themselves over to it when it obviously wanted to show out. I felt that if they understood that their passion for expression was as much God’s as their own, it would manifest itself beautifully.

I’ll tell you how we started the learning process next time I blog. I’ll try to blog more often. Bill says if you don’t blog regularly, you’re a BS blogger. Lord knows I don’t want to be that. Please respond and send me some of your stories about how you inspired your children in their talents. The stories don’t have to be all wonderful. I’m sure some of them are sad and tell of great sacrifices. I hope to compile them into a book about being dream enablers for our children. Please, please respond! Until next time…