Daughter and Mother: Words and Music Part 4

This entire month I have posted about my summer of 2016 when Mom and I created 30 songs together.  This four-part series has been dedicated to all mothers and daughters in honor of Mother's day. This is the last of the four posts.

My Mom, Lizzie, arriving for one of our words and music sessions at my apartment in Miami. She was 77 when this photo was taken.

My Mom's empty guitar case.

When I asked my Mom to work on music for my songs, she had not touched her guitar or sung in close to ten years.  The guitar was off tune and dusty. To put this time in context, my Mom was the type to play at every party since she was in her twenties, but as she aged, she let that side of her wither away.  She even stopped listening to music, instead she watched TV. It was sad to see her forget her gifts, those she had cherished and enjoyed all of her life.  My request came from a place of awakening.  I wanted for her to feel alive again.  I had no idea, it would do the same for me.

I was overjoyed when she accepted to help with this project and before you knew it, she was sending iphone recordings of her musical renditions at all hours of the day.  At 77, she was once again excited and engaged, and I, in turn, was happy to see her active again and doing what she loved: playing and singing. I realized through this creative journey how we often times let our dreams and passions fall on the wayside when, in reality, it is our life force. 

It is my hope, that our songs inspire you, whether at 21 or 81,  to pick up where you left off and bring your passion back to life. It is waiting for you. 

I leave you with one of our songs titled Hoy (Today).  Thank you for reading and listening.

AMO
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Ana Martinez Orizondo

My initials, AMO, stand for "I love" in my native Spanish. I am  am a Cuban-born, Latinx pastel artist, writer, photographer, community builder and artpreneur.