MUSIC CAN WOUND or HEAL

Do you have a song that tugs and tears 
at your heart whenever you hear it?

Or a melody that sweeps you
 back into the past?

Long ago, it was joked by my friends that no matter how pretty a passing girl was, 

I only had eyes for Kathryn, my fiancée.

The song of that name became Our Song.  

The version by The Flamingos became the one we danced to.

 You see we took part in dance competitions, not for the pursuit of winning 

but simply for the thrill of dancing

in one another's arms.

Until that chilling day when 

Kathryn's right foot began to drag.

A brain tumor.  

The night before the surgery, 

Kathryn insisted, despite her weakness and dragging foot, to dance to Our Song.

For the last time as it turned out.

I haven't danced since, 

and 

whenever I heard Our Song, 

I went dark inside.

But tonight, the song came on my computer via Pandora, and it no longer wounded but, in a sense, healed.

It came to me then, that what I had recently written in my WIP was true ... at least for me:

"One day, you will be driven to your knees 

not by the weight of your loss but by gratitude for what came before that loss.

 I will not lie to you. The ache will always be there, but not the emptiness, 

because to cling to the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of the love you were given.”

I believe our ability to create 

and appreciate music

 is at the center of 

what it means to be human.

What do you think?