Drove up to see the grandchildren today. The drive was so pretty, clear blue sky, just a few wisps of white cotton candy clouds. The trees are getting dressed in their colorful fall cardigans and they made me think of all the shades of yellows and oranges and reds in a big box of Crayola crayons. Saw lots of orange pumpkins and a few dried corn stalk decorations in the yards.

The colors of fall are my favorite. I call them Earth colors. The bright yellow cluster blooms of the goldenrod, the yellow patches of blacked eyed susans dotting the sides of dirt roads, the oranges and greens and yellows and whites of the pumpkin patch pumpkins resting in store displays with stalks of Indian colored corn and oddly shaped gourds always excite me. The colors of fall are warm and rich. Just look up at the azure blue sky on a sunny day and see the beauty in the colors of the tree foliage. God has created a wondrous world and Mother Nature has used her watercolors to gloriously paint the landscape.

My grandsons had their band concerts tonight. Alexander plays the French horn and Emerson is playing my trumpet. I’m so proud of them! My fondest memories of school all revolve around the band. I started learning to play the trumpet in the fifth grade and joined the high school band in the sixth grade. Those years tonight me so many lesson about life — dedication, discipline, responsibility, teamwork, commitment, how to take criticism. And it was so much fun…the Friday night ballgames and the weekend band contests and trips. Once you learn how to play an instrument you’ll have music the rest of your life.

Music is an universal language that we all can listen to and understand. I can’t imagine life without music. I sang in the church choir for years, starting as a teenager. Think of all the glorious hymns and how they move us and the emotions they emote. Chief and I sang to all three of our children as we rocked them to sleep every night. The band concert played an arrangement of America the Beautiful tonight that brought tears to my eyes.

Music can bring memories back with clarity of time and place. Music brings folks together at concerts and festivals. Movies without music? Can’t imagine that. Specially those two notes repeated over and over in the movie Jaws. Music helps us feel all the emotions in our lives. Music excites us, calms us down, and makes us feel better. Music entertains us and helps us communicate our emotions. Music helps us celebrate joyous times and consoles us when we’re sad.

The Earth would be a very quiet place without the harmonies in the music of life.

“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.” — Aretha Franklin