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WATCHING YOU GROW-11/13/14 Copyright 2014 by Judy Unger
WATCHING YOU GROW-Performance by Judy Unger on 9/23/14
Boy did those years go by quickly!
WATCHING YOU GROW
Copyright 2014 by Judy Unger
My heart overflows
All my joy just grows and grows
Only a dream when you began
First baby steps and then you ran
I’m watching you grow, bursting with pride
I’m all aglow
One day you arrived, tiny and new
My miracle was you
All through the years seeing you bloom
brings me to tears
You just don’t know how much I’ve loved
watching you grow
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You’ve come so far
You’re my superstar
Holding your hand, seeing you through
Then one day you just flew
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I’m watching you grow, bursting with pride
I’m all aglow
One day you arrived, tiny and new
My miracle was you
As years go by seeing you bloom
can make me cry
You just don’t know how much I’ve loved
watching you grow
I’ve loved . . .
watching you grow
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Below are the many pages of lyrics I scrawled when my song was “in progress.” There were a lot of pages for a song that says the same thing over and over!
I am a passionate songwriter. In my world, music plays every moment of my day. Lyric lines shout out to me in almost every situation.
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I find the process of writing a song to be miraculous. When a song is “born,” it is so beautiful that I am uplifted to a very joyful place. I hear it playing over and over and walk around singing the new melody all through my day.
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At first, I sing a melody without any words. But eventually the lyrics emerge and then it’s as if the song has always been there.
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Many times I’ve referred to my songs as “babies.” Just like a child with a gestation period, my song develops from feelings within my subconscious. When it is ready, it “arrives” and seems to have a unique personality right from the start.
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Of course, I cannot truly compare my songs to my children. Music certainly changed my life – but not nearly the way having my children did. And of course, my love for them goes far beyond music.
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“Watching You Grow” was most certainly inspired by my kids.
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I’m glad I could write a new song about them. I wrote one other song about them named “No Words. But “No Words” was haunted by the child of mine who died at the age of five and would never grow up. And I have already written many songs dedicated to Jason.
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Perhaps my joy over seeing my children grow is even more pronounced because I understand how fragile life can be.
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My song began when I heard a bouncy chord progression. I was very excited and saw it as a sign of healing for me. I could only write a joyful song if I were in a happier place.
I shared the new chord progression with my arranger, George. We began to arrange the song before I wrote lyrics or named it. I told George that I wondered what it would be about and shared some ideas with him.
I explained that there were so many reasons why this happy melody fit into my life at the moment. My children were really growing and I was thrilled with their progress. They were definitely blossoming.
He said, “Well, that’s your song!”
I smiled and decided I would name my song “Watching You Grow.”
I am constantly reminding my 17-year-old son to take out the trash (in addition to other chores.) Because he sometimes forgets, I asked him to make a note to remind himself (I’m so tired of being a nag). I love the picture he drew complete with flies!
I am very close to all three of my children, which means I definitely feel their joy and their pain. Currently, my sons are 17 and 24; my daughter is 21.
It was interesting how not long after writing “Watching You Grow,” I lost my connection and feeling for it. The joy I had performing it at open mic venues completely disappeared.
Perhaps it was because I had no privacy where I was. I began to feel irritable in my apartment where I lived with my two sons; I found myself wishing they were “flying independently” and considered renaming my song “Grow Up Already!”
From the time they were born, my life has been intertwined with my children. Without sharing any more details about their lives, I can say that I have endured moments of deep despair while they were growing up.
The miles of growth that all three of them have traveled were sometimes so painful that I sure wish at those times I knew where they would be today.
Teaching my children to fly has been the greatest challenge of my life. But what is also important to acknowledge is that I have never really flown. I was married when I was 21 and still have not experienced living on my own.
I’m 55 years old, divorced and all of my children depend on me. Their father has not been very involved in their lives these past two years. He plans to move far away to another country in seven months.
Now I understand why my song wasn’t touching me - I was lying when I sang it!
That was because my song’s main emphasis was about how much I’ve loved watching my children grow. Well that wasn’t true because watching my children grow was often an ordeal.
But my song is true, because they are all miracles.
I see my children as gifts from God; each one is special and more important than anything else in my life.
I might dislike the process of growth, but I sure treasure the result. What lies beyond is magnificent and definitely worth celebrating.
Changing my thought process about this helped greatly and not long after that I watched my oldest son go over a big hurdle in his life. That led to celebrating and simply confirmed my feelings about how much I love the result of growth.
So now I do feel “all aglow” when I sing “Watching You Grow!”
The words above are my lyrics in progress. I always write my feelings first to help me come up with song lyrics.
I tried to relate my song to my own life because most of the lyrics touched me that way. I continue to grow in so many ways, too.
One word in my song did not fit for that. It was “tiny.” Perhaps I have “arrived,” but I was never tiny. I tried replacing the word “tiny” with “pure, fresh, and innocent.” That way my song could be about how I felt when I rediscovered my music.
None of the other words moved me like “tiny” did. The feelings that brought me to tears were not about me.
It moved me deeply remembering my children when they were born. They were “tiny” and new!
So the absolute truth is that nothing in my life is more amazing for me than the miracle of seeing them grow into the beautiful humans they are today.
© 2014 by Judy Unger http://www.myjourneysinsight.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Judy Unger with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
