#MusicMonday With @OleanderBand Plus Experiencing @WavesOfImpact, Water, Laughter And Fun

No compensation or product was received for this post. I did this post because I felt it would be interesting, and because I love music. I also really love the band and the song.

For today’s Music Monday I want to share a personal experience with you and a song that I love and I feel fits. We’ll get to the personal stuff in a second, first here are the lyrics to the song. The song is titled “You Are The One”, and it’s from the band Oleander.

Seems like just yesterday we were on our way and everything was beautiful.
Together against the grain, we would laugh at the rain.
Yeah we were invincible.
Like a runaway train, we lost control.
A little too fast, you know I thought we’d let go.
We’ve had our laughter and pain, but one thing that remains the same…
You are the one,
You make my motor sing,
We laugh out loud at everything so stay with me tonight,
I swear we’ll be alright.
You are the one.
Time slowly passes by,
the world shuts down for you and I tonight.
So stay with me tonight, you are the one.
We’re somewhere beneath the wave, we were lost in a haze, yeah we were spent and cynical
That’s when we hit the wall, into the wind with it all.
I guess nothing lasts forever now.
Like a runaway train, out of control.
A little too fast, you know I thought we’d let go.
We’ve had our laughter and pain, but one thing that remains the same…
You are the one,
You make my motor sing,
We laugh out loud at everything so stay with me tonight,
I swear we’ll be alright.
You are the one.
Time slowly passes by,
the world shuts down for you and I tonight.
So stay with me tonight, you are the one.
How do we turn the page, maybe close the door and never look back anymore?
Don’t wanna walk away, don’t know what to say, but I don’t want to say goodbye.
You are the one,
You make my motor sing,
We laugh out loud at everything so stay with me tonight,
I swear we’ll be alright.
You are the one.
Time slowly passes by,
the world shuts down for you and I tonight.
So stay with me tonight, stay with me, tonight, you are the one.
Stay with me, stay with me, tonight, you are the one.

So about now you’re wondering what that means to me. I’ll tell you. It says a lot about how I feel about my youngest son. You see, for me he is the one. More then anyone, he does make my motor sing.  It’s so odd, I’m the parent and he’s the child. But when he sees me upset or even not feeling well, he tries to help me and make things better for me. He, like me, loves to laugh. His smile can lift my heart and brighten the blackest moment in my darkest day. When he hugs me I feel better and for that moment like things will be all right.  He loves unconditionally – he couldn’t care less what I look like, how much I weigh, how much money I have, where I live, what gift I’m giving, how much I spent on something, none of it. He’s made me a better person. He is the one that taught me things I didn’t know and didn’t even realize I needed to know. Raising him does have it’s challenges and occasionally we even suffer some ugly moments, because unfortunately not everyone is open-minded or accepting. Some people are ignorant and downright cruel. I can’t lie, those moments hurt like hell and they do make me, an everloving optimist, a bit cynical. And they give me worry for the future. But even still, I wouldn’t trade him for anything.
Recently I heard about a nonprofit called Waves Of Impact. In their own words, “Many people have found that getting in the ocean can be an incredible stress reducing activity. Waves of Impact seeks to spread this experience through free surf camps for kids with special challenges and our fine young men and women veterans our military who were injured while serving our country.” My son doesn’t really have friends in the sense that typical children do, and I always worry that he’s lonely and not having enough fun. So when I learned that Waves Of Impact was coming to the area I signed him up. Being a nonprofit, Waves Of Impact is made possible by the time and efforts of volunteers and financial donations of sponsors. Both are equally important. Volunteers are great because they’re out there doing what needs to be done. But sponsors are also great because without them there would be no funds to do things. Being involved with a nonprofit myself, I know how hard it can be to find sponsors, that’s a job all in itself. Anyway. This past Thursday we went over to Lavallette so my son could go surfing for his first time ever. My hope was that he’d have a little fun. Well, my hopes were squashed. He didn’t have a little fun. He had a LOT of fun. He was so happy when he came out of the water. And every day since we’ve looked at pictures from that day and he’ll say “me fun”, and his face will light up all over again. The folks running Waves Of Impact were super friendly. Everyone seemed happy to be there, from volunteers on land to surfers in the water. I can’t speak highly enough about our experience with Waves Of Impact. Here’s a slideshow, you can see for yourself.

A big thank you to Waves Of Impact, and all of their volunteers and sponsors. We had an amazing time that we’ll never forget.
And once again, a huge thanks and debt of gratitude to the band Oleander, for generously giving me permission to use one of their amazing songs. I love the song. I find it relevant, plus my son likes it and I think it goes great with the slideshow. The song “You Are The One” is on Oleander’s latest album, “Something Beautiful”. If you would like the details of my thoughts on the album, read my Something Beautiful album review, published back in April.
MORE INFO
OLEANDER
Oleander website
Oleander on Twitter
Oleander on Facebook
WAVES OF IMPACT
Waves Of Impact website
Waves Of Impact on Facebook
Waves Of Impact on Twitter