This is not meant to be MORBID.....

My husband has taught me so much over the years.

The most important thing is patience.....geeze, the man has been patient with me and my whacked out ideas!

In a close tie with patience, is how he taught me what music really is and what it can do for the soul. Sometimes when we can't find the words to say to each other, it will be the music that says it instead. I love that.

Don't get me wrong. I've always loved music, but it was sort of in the background. Obviously, I now think with music.

The other morning, while in one of the quiet reflective moods, I realized I wasn't afraid of dying. Not that I'm like rushing toward it or anything, but rather, just had that peace settle over me.

Are you humming something now? I was, and for a while kept searching YouTube for the song that I thought was performed by Chicago, because I remembered the horns. It wasn't. It was performed by Blood, Sweat, and Tears and was written by a 17 year old girl, Laura Nyro.

I had forgotten about Laura Nyro and what all she wrote. I had not forgotten the songs, just that they were hers. And they were mine. I loved everything she wrote. It was the music of my high school days, first crushes, first loves. These songs blared through the speakers at Camp McDowell. They really became the first songs of my life.

Trying to find a good youtube of this song was hard and then I stumbled on this one. When

David Clayton-Thomas has an insert (in the middle of the video) about the young girl who came to practice and offered these songs, I had not remembered it was Laura Nyro, so off my search started this morning.

Laura Nyro had cancer and died in 1997. We share a first name and we share a disease. What a loss, but what gifts she has left us.

One other factoid, of interest to maybe only one person reading this, is that supposedly "the song "Baby, Let's Swing" by Todd Rundgren is about Laura....he said after hearing her he started playing songs like her instead of The Who." (This was on a "song fact" site and I haven't "fact checked" it, yet.)

Remember, this is not meant to be morbid......Such a great song!