I discovered a blog a little while ago and was inspired by a linky that i discovered. In a nutshell and there is a link here so you can go read about it yourself. But basically it is about connecting a song or some music with an image. This rings so many bells with me. Music is something that is so much part of my life, i listen to music all the time and i am one of those people who can watch a series of images or a video without music and not feel a thing but add a soundtrack or some poignantly worded lyrics and i will be moved to the next week and blubbing into a tissue.

I had stumbled across this blog just when her suggested song for inspiration was a song by Rod Stewart called Forever Young.

Kind of a advice type of song to his son it would seem and it made me think of the crossroads that my son is at right now..leafing through iphoto (does anyone use that still?) where i used to store my images i discovered this image

This is my little boy just before he started school. He is just 4 in this picture, it was the summer before his first year in reception. So little we knew back then, the years of school runs, parents evenings, nativity plays were all alien to us. I miss those days of innocence sometimes. When we were his world and the influence of the outside was so minimal. When the thought of an afternoon watching trains was the best treat EVER and when he still spoke with a southern accent and not a northern one!! 😉

Things have changed so much. His hair is no longer those tight curls. He won’t let it grow long enough to find out. 😉 But there is still so much of what is real about him in this image that is evident in the young man he is becoming. He is still pretty open about whats going on with him, he is a heart on his sleeve kind of guy and i hope that doesn’t change that much. Im not naive though and i know it will to some element.

We were speaking to him about the secondary school choices recently as we have been since before the end of his last term in year 5, his face suddenly crumpled and he looked so young and unsure. I guess he was just overwhelmed with the responsibility of it all.

He is still so young and whilst we can’t protect him from the future, we can help to arm him with ways to deal with the things that are to come and be behind him every step.

The words in the song are a little cheesey but the ones that resound with me..are these in particular. 🙂

“May you grow to be proud,
dignified and true.
And do unto others
As you’d have done to you.
Be courageous and be brave


-Forever Young (Rod Stewart)