Beautiful Inspiration

My husband surprised me with a wonderful Mother's Day gift: two tickets to the Carole King and James Taylor Turbadoor Renunion Concert. I've loved King and Taylor as singer songwriters since I was a teenager.

Carole King's first hit album, 'Tapestry', was my first experience with her music. Her performance is wonderful but it's her writing, her lyrics that hit my heart and soul. As a young teenager, the words in her songs gave me messages that I needed to hear. They uplifted my shaken teenage heart, gave my soul something to believe in and hang onto when my life was rocky. Words like these from the song, "Beautiful", literally got me out of bed in the morning...

'You've got to get up every morning With a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
The people gonna treat you better
You're gonna find, yes you will
That you're beautiful as you feel'

And nothing spoke about a teenage crush to me like the song, "I feel the earth move"...

'Hey, I feel the earth move
Under my feet.
I feel the sky tumblin' down.
I feel my heart start to tremble
whenever you're around.'


And when I had to move all the way from Ohio to Oregon, away from all my high school friends nothing soothed my soul like
these words from, "You've got a friend"...

'When you're down and troubled and you need some love and care,
and nothing, nothing is going right,
close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there
to brighten up even your darkest night.

You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am,
I'll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call
and I'll be there
You've got a friend.'


Carole King was a songwriter long before she was a performer. I had no idea of all the songs I'd heard over the years that were her work recorded by other performers from The Shirelles with "Will you still love me tomorrow", The Chiffons with "One fine day", The Animals with "Don't bring me down" along with performers like The Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Celine Dion, and James Taylor to name a few. She's acted on Broadway, in movies and on TV. She's a mom with 4 children, too.

I'm awed and amazed and inspired by a woman of such talents. Her writing continues to inspire me.

Just take last night at the Rose Garden, to a completely sold out house, she sang, played the piano and danced around the stage with James Taylor and the band. Just seeing her and James up there, doing what they love most in the world, their music, is inspiration enough. But both of them are millionaires with no need to tour anymore, both are in their late 60's considered to be 'retirement' age by some; yet there they were up on stage for 3 hours singing their hearts outs. Carole's joyful exuberance once again showed the world all the love in her heart. And I know, it filled my heart and soul with love, happiness and inspiration just as it did the day I first played her 'Tapestry' album.