Cherry blossoms & first baby feels like new beginnings
Above: My daughter falls asleep every time (so far) I hold her. The nurses told me she knows my voice and is soothed by it (babies apparently hear from within the whom, so my voice is quite familiar to her already). The feeling of your baby actually being soothed and comforted by you is an experience like no other. I can't put into words the feeling. It's completely new.
This feeling -- a feeling of freshness, a feeling of new possibilities and new beginnings -- reminded me of an old Chicago song called "beginnings." If you are over 35 or so you surely know it. It's a song originally of romantic love I suppose, but the essence fits well with this feeling I have now (and just change a few words and the lyrics fit perfectly too). The emotion is captured in these lines from the song (in the slide below).
Beginnings was on Chicago's first album in 1969, but hit the charts (#1 on the U.S. Adult contemporary) with its re-release in 1971. The great guitarist Terry Kath provides a very distinctive upbeat rhythmic feel that really gives this song an essence of a fresh start or a new beginning. In this raw, pre-mixed vintage recording of Chicago in Tokyo in 1972 (below), it's funny to hear the song introduce as an "a very old song" -- a whole three years old at that point. Still sounds good today.
In this vintage clip you can also witness a live recording of one of the best drummers ever, Danny Seraphine.
Related
This song -- "Little One," also by Chicago -- has more meaning now.
