When You Burn a Girl a CD (Or, Why I Have a Slight Crush on Jason Mraz) June 11, 2009

When you burn a girl a CD, she will listen to it every single moment she is awake.

After she has listened to it approximately 25 times, she will ask you to print off the lyrics for each song.

After you print off the lyrics, she will sing along.

As she sings along, you begin to pick up the lyrics as well.

After you can sing every song on the CD, some phrases begin to stick out.

As you ponder those phrases, you begin to apply them to certain life experiences.

Those life experiences remind you of other songs, which makes you go to i-Tunes and download them.

After you’ve downloaded those other songs, your daughter hears them and asks you to burn her a new CD.

And, when you burn a girl a CD, she will listen to it every single moment she is awake.

 

 

 

     Currently, I am stuck on a small phrase from Jason Mraz’s song “I’m Yours” that goes

I reckon it’s again my turn to win some or learn some.

 

     Now, I really love this song.  Love, love love love looooove…  Besides its cute island vibe and catchy tune, I love the message that you have to step forward to meet life with arms wide open, letting go of your rigid expectations and making the best of what you’re given.

 

     I have decided that from this point on, whether than saying “win or lose” at my house, we’re adopting “win or learn”.  Isn’t that a great philosophy?  Earlier today, Hannah and Anthony and I played a game of Candyland, which is what sparked this whole thought process.  (Did you hear the scream when Anthony lost?  I know it was probably muffled by thunder, but still…  that kid has LUNGS.)  The first thing that popped into my head was this song.  (Truthfully, the first thing I thought was, “Oh, honestly.”  Followed immediately by, “My EARS!!!  My HEAD!!!”)  We had the good-sport discussion, and while he’s three and completely uninterested in the whole “it’s just fun to play” thing, I still tried to teach him that his participation was more important than who got to King Candy the fastest.

 

     (You know, because “learn” is the hopeful outcome of “teach”.)

 

     The point I’m trying to make is, every day presents a new set of experiences for me to navigate through.  The days that seem to go best for me are the days I open up my mind and open up my plans and just enjoy the day’s offerings.  When something goes wrong, or something unexpected comes up, if I look at it from a “what can I learn” perspective**, rather than labeling it a disaster, then there should be more “win” days and less “learn” ones.  Either that, or I’ll just be the most learned mother alive.

 

     Which is also a win, right?

 

 

 

**For example, I learned that when you have to pick your son up from a Student Council party and it happens to end at the exact same time the skies open and dump six inches of rain and a good amount of hail on the roads and you think there’s an accident in the road so you go around it and realize it’s the line to turn right onto the street you need to be on so you take a short(long)cut through the Auto Mall and there is so much standing water in the road that just driving through it sends up a sheet of water ten feet tall but you pull out anyway because how else are you going to get to your son and there are so many cars trying to get onto the freeway that is at a complete standstill that you wait for three lights before you can get through and your son is the last one at Mulligans and you apologize to the faculty advisor who looks mildly annoyed and you apologize to your son who says, “I LOVED watching the lightning!  Why’d you have to come so fast?” and then you go back through the Auto Mall just to drive through the puddles lake because it makes your kids shriek with delight and then you go home and turn on all the lights because it’s 2:00 PM but it’s so dark and cloudy that it looks like night and your kids tell you it’s the best day ever, then taking a wrong turn on a super-rainy day turns into a win for everyone.

 

(View the “I’m Yours” video here.)