A Certain Song at a Certain Time

Full transcript of the My True Ghost Stories episode “A Certain Song at a Certain Time.” Listen to this episode.

A certain song at a certain time. Let me know that the choices I was making were the right ones. Welcome to episode 46 of My True Ghost Stories. Last week's episode about a comforting sign sent to me from the universe while I was in labor with my first baby, ended with me happily holding that pink healthy baby in a hospital bed. After a not-so-happy birth experience, but the sign that was sent to me from the universe was what got me through, plus a whole bunch of doctors and nurses.

And that sign from the universe was what got me to the point where I got to hold that sweet newborn, the sweet newborn from the end of last week's story. These signs are a constant in my life. I get hints and clues and messages from the universe all the time. They come in different ways, like an overheard conversation, a found note on the ground, or a certain song at a certain time. This story today is about a certain song at a certain time.

Letting me know that the ideas I was considering at that time were approved by the powers that be. So that sweet pink baby that I gave birth to with the help of doctors, nurses, mother nature, and a sign from above on my windowsill, that sweet pink newborn and I headed home after several days in the hospital. The extended hospital stay was for me, not for her. Things had gotten a little complicated for me during that labor, and I had to stay almost a week to recover. But I recovered, and eventually it was time to take that baby home.

As we approached the exit doors of the maternity ward, I felt a huge wave of anxiety that day. After a week of non-stop care from a 24 hour medical staff, they were just going to send us in our baby home. First time parents with no medical training, I thought maybe we should just hang out here in the waiting room, just in case. But I was able to pull it together and keep moving towards that exit, towards the big scary world outside, knowing that I could take a cab back here in case of an emergency. As we walked down the sidewalk, trucks whizzed by on the street, and I held the baby tightly.

I had never realized how scary the world was until now, now that I had a tiny helpless infant in my arms. We reached the car, and we had to figure out how to secure the car seat, not easy for first time parents. And it was July. It was hot. I was one week postpartum.

I was terrified. Yet somehow we managed to get in the car with a baby properly fastened into a car seat. We turned the car as AC on. Okay, I said after I fastened my seatbelt, it's time to turn on the radio. It was time to hear the baby song.

As frightened as I was, I also recognized that this was a momentous occasion, heading home with a first baby. Life was never going to be the same. I wanted this moment to be memorialized in the same way that it had happened for me when I was the first baby of new parents. When my parents headed home from the hospital with me, their first baby, as new young parents, this was a momentous occasion, this taking home of a first baby. My dad tells the story that they were driving home from the hospital on the road under the elevated train.

And unlike the mandatory federally approved car seat laws of today, nobody in that car was wearing seat belts or anything and my mother was just holding me in the front seat. My dad says that every time they stopped at a light on that drive home, he would look over at me in my mother's arms. At one point, radio on, waiting for the light to change, looking over at what he describes as a perfect baby, a perfect song began. It was under the boardwalk by the drifters. He says that he and my mom on their way home for the first time his parents looked at each other and started singing along.

And he describes it as a perfect moment in time. There are some events that are so momentous that you always remember the song that was playing when it happened. So with my first baby sitting in the car about to take our new baby home, I said to my husband, it's time to turn on the radio. We have to find out what her song is. I don't know if I had already told him about this under the boardwalk story, but he was definitely game to try it.

He switched on the radio and a song had just begun. And it was ever long by the food fighters. The first words to this song are, hello, I've waited here for you. And at first glance, this song seems like a romantic love song, but to me as a new mom that day, that song was just about love. It is about waiting for someone to arrive and then feeling deeply connected to them, everything that was going on with me and this baby.

And the song ever long is soaring and haddy and beautiful and we knew that this was indeed her song, our song. And just like my parents had with me, we as a family had a perfect moment in time. And this new baby song in the radio tradition continued. Two more babies came after that first one and their songs were, heaven beside you by Allison Chains and time bomb, a ska song by Rancid. Definitely different vibes than the soaring love song that accompanied the first baby.

But the radio gave what it gave. Tradition stated that we couldn't jump around the dial looking for a song that we thought would be best. And I've decided that ever long was first to represent love for all my babies. And I don't know what to say about the other songs. My youngest thinks that it's hilarious that her song is by a band named Rancid.

There are also some songs that for some reason I always remember the first time I heard them. Notably for me, the first time I heard Hotel California by the Eagles. I was about to start a new school and I was in my bedroom at my mother's house crossing towards my mirror when hotel California started playing on my clock radio. I paused midwalk and turned around to listen to it. Completely enthralled.

And every time I hear that song, I think of that first time hearing it in my room on my clock radio right before I started a new school. It is an unforgettable moment in time. So a connection between new beginnings and new songs on the radio is significant for my family. I have had a few new beginnings lately and they have been punctuated and affirmed by random songs on the radio. About a year or so ago, I had begun contemplating some serious upgrades to my health habits.

I was reading about some new longevity practices, which would, if they were as effective as they were being reported as being, they would buy me a whole bunch of healthy years to pursue new things and prevent me from trailing off into declining health and irrelevance. Things I really don't want to do. There are a lot of things I still need to accomplish, even though I have already accomplished a lot, engaging in new healthy practices with a mindset that I have plenty of time left was really appealing to me. And I've included a link for one of the longevity books that I've been reading. The day came recently when I had researched longevity enough and I was employing enough of these new daily health practices that I was feeling significantly better all the time, energetic, healthy, youthful.

I was feeling a huge amount of hope and excitement about the many new chapters I could potentially have in this life. If I continued on with these healthy practices, which I have, and if I continued feeling this way, which I have, it was during this initial health habits upgrade period that I started spending more time at the gym. One day after a great workout there at the gym, I went downstairs to the locker room and into the shower. I spent a long time in that shower, which I do sometimes, if someone else is paying for the hot water, and it was in that shower that day that I had a true revelation. I can do this.

Life is not over. Life is just beginning. My health doesn't have to decline. I can just keep going. I can do all those things I haven't done yet.

Things like starting a podcast. As the hot water from the shower ran down on me that day, I felt joy and elation. And for some reason, it was happening in that shower that day. I turned off the water. I felt this new beginning happening right here.

I was starting a new life right now. And as I walked out of the showers that day, I heard from the speakers in the ceiling above the locker room. I heard that one song was ending and a new one was beginning. I listened, still giddy with excitement about this new life I was beginning. I recognized the opening notes of the song that was now on the gym's sound system.

The song was, under the boardwalk. A song I had never heard before at that gym and haven't heard since. It was a sign. This song was celebrating my new life, just as it had celebrated my new life when I had first come into this world. By playing me this song, the universe was affirming the choices I was making and affirming the new attitudes about all the things I still had left to do on this earth and that I had time to do them.

I called my dad that evening and told him the story of the song at the gym. It's Jenny's rebirth, he said happily. I called my mom that evening as well and told her the story. It's Jenny's rebirth, she said happily. We were all happy.

And as I said, this type of sign happens to me all the time. Every week for a few days before I record this podcast, I have to decide what story to tell. And I sort of put it in the back of my mind as a request. What story should I tell? And then I have to trust that the answer will eventually pop into my mind, which it always does in the form of an idea or a sign from the universe, something.

And this past week, as I was doing this, waiting for this week's story idea to pop into my mind. I was at the gym where I go pretty much every day and I was thinking about last week's episode and how it ended with me holding a beautiful pink newborn. And then I started to think about the next thing that happened after I held that newborn and spent time recovering, which was to take that baby home. And then I thought about that day. The day we took the baby home and how scared it was to leave the hospital and how hard it was to get the car seat in and how amazed I was that now it was a mom.

And I started to think about getting into the car that day and honoring the moment by turning the radio on to hear this baby song. Like my parents had done with me. And then I remembered the story that I just told you about hearing under the boardwalk there at the gym after making the solid decision in the shower to start a new life. I realized then that that was the story, that that was the story I would tell today about hearing that song at that time and how meaningful it was to me there that day in the gym. And I started outlining it in my mind right there in the gym.

I thought about how for background, I would first tell the story of my parents taking baby me home and hearing under the boardwalk. And then I thought about how I would also tell the story of taking my baby home and hearing ever long. And then as I was walking around the gym thinking about all this, there was some silence between songs on the gym's sound system and a new song began. It was ever long. Okay, I got it, I said, looking up at the speakers in the gym ceiling.

I'll tell the story about songs and babies. And then just to seal the deal and convince me that none of this was a coincidence, the next song was Hotel California. As always, if you have enjoyed this episode of My True Go Stories, please take a second to subscribe, review and share it with a friend to help this show grow. And if you would like to hear more stories for me about my everyday life in New York City, please subscribe to the Patreon. And the link to the Patreon is in the show notes.

And that's all for today. Thank you for listening to today's episode. And if you think your house is haunted, want energy cleared from your space or need a custom spiritual ritual, I'm here to help. Visit jpclearing.com or email me at jpclearing60atgmail.com. Don't forget to join me here every Tuesday for a new episode. Until next time.