The Sweetest Song

Sometimes I forget how wonderful it was on my grandparent's farm. But I can close my eyes and like a flood all of these memories come rushing back.

I can remember drinking syrupy-sweet iced tea out of old mason jars, and waking up to the smell of bacon cooking and the sound of laughter in the kitchen. Walking down 'the lane' (the dirt road the farm was on) to Great Aunt Thelma and Great Aunt Leila's house (everyone's accents were so thick, I was 15 before I found out their names weren't actually Thelmur and Leelur) and wondering how they didn't mind not having air conditioning. The sound of the cows moo-ing and the goats baah-ing and the chickens clucking and the dogs barking. The taste of a pear fresh off of the tree. All of the pictures I have of me draped over one of the limbs of the climbing tree, or holding a baby goat, or climbing fences. Jumping off of a rock and holding on to that rope swing for dear life before splashing into the springs. Granny's collard and mustard greens fresh out of the garden, or the taste of a watermelon right out of Uncle David's fields... and the seed-spitting contest that followed. I remember all of the recliners in Granny and Papa's living room, and the hundreds of pictures on the shelves. My grandparents had nine kids, seven girls and two boys, and each of them had three or four, and each of them had three or four and... and all of us had a picture on that wall.
But most of all, I remember sitting in that long, long line of rocking chairs on the wrap-around porch, shelling peas in the heat, and listening to the Lee girls sing. I'll never be able to explain how sweet their harmony was. You can ask any of the kids or grand-kids or great-grand-kids and we will all remember it as one of the sweetest sounds we've ever heard. They'd just all start singing these old gospel songs or love songs in absolutely perfect harmony and it was more beautiful and more compelling than any siren song. When I listened to it then, it just seemed like a pretty song, but now I know why it sounded so beautiful. It wasn't just their incredible talent, or that they'd been doing it for so long... singing in church, and on TV, and some even going on tour... but they were singing those songs with experience. All of those women, with a million hurts and a million joys between them.. dead husbands, dead children, abuse, struggle, addictions, abandonment... and overcoming that to find laughter, joy, salvation, comfort, true love, and triumph. The words of "I'll Fly Away", or "The Rose", were more than lyrics to them. They were deeply hidden in their hearts. Now I know how songs can play in your soul and help you survive. Now I know why there was always, always, always someone singing something. I do it myself.
I never knew how sweet those memories would become for me, but just thinking of it now, my eyes fill up with tears and I feel my chest tighten, and I feel the most incredible longing.. just to feel that country breeze, and those old rocking chairs and hear that sweet sweet song just one more time.