This weeks prompt that I choose to write about hit home to me from Mama Kat's workshop. I had been thinking about writing about this when the prompts came to me on Monday morning. Share a Whitney Houston song that meant something to you.
(inspired by Mama Mary).
Saturday I was knee deep in throw up from Thing Two having the stomach flu. It was Big Cheese's weekend with the children but Thing Two was not going anywhere. She wanted to stay home with me, which was fine with me. As I was throwing in yet another load of laundry that had the wretched smell of vomit I heard the phone go off. I thought it might be Big Cheese checking in on Thing One's status. I looked at the text, it was him. "OMG! Whitney Houston is dead turn on MSN right now!". I spun so fast to grab the remote and of course to Twitter and Facebook. I kept telling myself it wasn't true, it wasn't true! I watched and felt confusion and shock. I grew up listening to this lady and she was their at the most important time in my life when I thought I would never get out of the darkness I was in.
Summer 2001 was one of the roughest times of my life. I had been married for seven years with ups and downs in them, but it was officially over. My then husband had moved out, I was alone. We were not able to conceive any children and that was one of many of our problems that were exacerbated during this time. I found myself questioning everything in the relationship. Was it me? Was it him? Could this anger be about other things. I fluctuated from sadness to anger and back again. Mostly I was sad, and clinically depressed. My doctor even put me on medication to help take the edge off of all the crazy feelings I had inside. While it curbed it somewhat I really just needed to go through the steps of grieving. Grieving the loss of hopes and dreams I had felt had died with the marriage. Mostly the hope of having children. I was now single at 30 and quickly approaching 31.
I had just purchased the Whitney Houston Greatest Hits album. I loved that the two-disk album was labeled "Cool" and the other "Hot". I played the "Cool" disk over and over and over. Obsessive to hear about love and the pain involved along with it. Her voice expressing every lost feeling I had. I cried often and it was cleansing. One day I decided to put on the "Hot" disk. It had a lot of faster dance tunes of hers. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the one song that helped me think of where I was going was found on this "Hot" disk.
I heard every word, the lyrics hit me and made me smile. Whitney's voice encouraging and exciting. The song was not one of her more popular songs that everyone knew and until that moment I really had never paid attention to it. The song was "Step by Step", a remix actually. Very upbeat with a great dance groove.
(inspired by Mama Mary).
Saturday I was knee deep in throw up from Thing Two having the stomach flu. It was Big Cheese's weekend with the children but Thing Two was not going anywhere. She wanted to stay home with me, which was fine with me. As I was throwing in yet another load of laundry that had the wretched smell of vomit I heard the phone go off. I thought it might be Big Cheese checking in on Thing One's status. I looked at the text, it was him. "OMG! Whitney Houston is dead turn on MSN right now!". I spun so fast to grab the remote and of course to Twitter and Facebook. I kept telling myself it wasn't true, it wasn't true! I watched and felt confusion and shock. I grew up listening to this lady and she was their at the most important time in my life when I thought I would never get out of the darkness I was in.
Summer 2001 was one of the roughest times of my life. I had been married for seven years with ups and downs in them, but it was officially over. My then husband had moved out, I was alone. We were not able to conceive any children and that was one of many of our problems that were exacerbated during this time. I found myself questioning everything in the relationship. Was it me? Was it him? Could this anger be about other things. I fluctuated from sadness to anger and back again. Mostly I was sad, and clinically depressed. My doctor even put me on medication to help take the edge off of all the crazy feelings I had inside. While it curbed it somewhat I really just needed to go through the steps of grieving. Grieving the loss of hopes and dreams I had felt had died with the marriage. Mostly the hope of having children. I was now single at 30 and quickly approaching 31.
I had just purchased the Whitney Houston Greatest Hits album. I loved that the two-disk album was labeled "Cool" and the other "Hot". I played the "Cool" disk over and over and over. Obsessive to hear about love and the pain involved along with it. Her voice expressing every lost feeling I had. I cried often and it was cleansing. One day I decided to put on the "Hot" disk. It had a lot of faster dance tunes of hers. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the one song that helped me think of where I was going was found on this "Hot" disk.
I heard every word, the lyrics hit me and made me smile. Whitney's voice encouraging and exciting. The song was not one of her more popular songs that everyone knew and until that moment I really had never paid attention to it. The song was "Step by Step", a remix actually. Very upbeat with a great dance groove.
The next day instead of crying at home I hit the gym equipped with the lyrics of the song running through my earphones and my thoughts. Making me think, "YES YOU CAN DO THIS, STEP BY STEP". I worked out , I felt the energy and hope go through me. This was not the end of my story, not the end of my journey. Life will go on and it will not be without stumbling along the way. I did have the choice to put one foot in front of the other and take it "Step by Step".
Things did change for me. I took on a new challenge in my work, I found joy in friends and family, I even went on to have two beautifully wonderful children. One song who's lyrics touched me and one singer who made me truly feel each of those lyrics.
So yes, I cried when I heard. I fear that she could not find the same happiness and hope that were in those positive lyrics she sang, the ones that lifted me. She had demons that were often spread through tabloids. You cheered and hoped that these were not true and that eventually she would find her way. In the end only she and God know what exactly went on in her last hours and how she felt.
I can say this: Thank you Whitney for giving me that song and singing it with all your heart and soul, it saved me from staying where I was.
What was your favorite Whitney song and why?
As always Thursdays posts brought to you with a little help from:
