Why the Gift of Music?

Music is one of the threads that have held me together.  Likewise, music personifies the fabric of Kyrie’s life.  In Gifts in Brown Paper Packages, the lyrics, harmonies, chords and melodies of songs have the power to transport Kyrie to a place where she escapes from her physical environment, creating a protective soundtrack for her life. Each song that aligns with a chapter heading, represents an emotion Kyrie felt during that chapter, and/or a song that she “played” or sang in her head that helped her go to an emotionally safe place in a time of angst, discomfort, fear, and ultimately, liberation and triumph.

This soundtrack represents a thematic discourse which shrouds this narrative.  Perhaps one or more selections are songs that will elicit nostalgia from some aspect of your life.  For some, there may be selections from this soundtrack that are unknown to you, until today.  In that case, I hope that your introduction to the song, either lyrics or melody or both, becomes a gift that evokes some simple comfort, joy or tenderness for you, as they did for Kyrie, and as they continue to do for me, today.