525,600 Minutes – Measure of Calm

The song Seasons of Love, from the Broadway musical Rent, always makes me cry. It’s a good kind of cry – the kind where your heart is both torn apart and made stronger in the same moment. It has also always struck me as a perfect song for celebrating birthdays. The lyrics are, in part:

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?

How about love?

Today is my birthday, and last night I watched about a dozen different versions of the song on YouTube – the original Broadway cast on the Rosie O’Donnell show, the cast of the movie on the Ellen show, and on and on. I knew I wanted to post a version of the song on my birthday. I chose the performance above, which gathers together past and (then) present members of the cast on the event of the last Broadway performance of the show, because it seemed to perfectly combine the joy and poignancy of the song.

The past year of my life has been filled with cups of tea and coffee, laughter, tears, hugs, kisses, a pandemic, hummingbirds, sunsets and sunrises, walks, work, music, dreams, misunderstandings and reconciliations. But the golden thread that is woven throughout is Love. Yes, with a capital L.

Love is everything.

Thank you for being a part of the past 525,600 minutes of my life. Here’s to several million more.

xoxo

10 comments on “525,600 Minutes”

Martin Ashurst On August 14, 2020 at 9:36 am

Happy Birthday Michelle. You’re one of the good ones – and thanks for being a part of mine last April, it meant a lot!

Elizabeth Anderson On August 14, 2020 at 10:00 am

Happy Birthday Michelle 🎉🎶❤
- MichelleC On August 14, 2020 at 11:04 am
  
  Thanks, Liz! And thanks again for the print – you are so thoughtful (and talented!). xoxo
MichelleC On August 14, 2020 at 11:03 am

Thanks, Martin! You’re one of the good ones, too. And thanks for introducing me to Chris. 🙂