My second oldest son, Josh, and I drove in the Vancouver Airport this week. He was on his way to catch a flight back to the February chill of Fort McMurray & not too psyched about it. Thursday was a glorious day here though, bright, almost warm - a perfect road trip day, hot coffee and tunes blasting as the road whizzed by.

I'm pretty enamoured with my new MP3 player - did I mention that before? (now that i'm 50, all my stories are bound for repeat) My daughter loaded it for me with 700 songs, and I'm in literal rap heaven. Eminem, Jayz, Jay Sean, Kayne,Chris Brown, Wheezy... Songs from last summer's trip to the States, songs from mornings riding down to Dog, songs from learning to drive with Lisa... And every time a fav would come on, it'd be like a rush of pure musical adrenaline.

So we both belted the songs out like rock stars - at first with Josh looking at me both impressed and a little embarrassed that I was a fan of 'his' music and knew all the words. Our conversation was mixed with emphatic, 'this part! this part! don't you love that harmony?!' or, 'wow, isn't that crashing back beat percussion EXACTLY the sound of your soul?!' or, 'it's incredible how smart these lyrics are, isn't it?!'

- Eminem in his edgy, somewhat depressed rap, 'Don't let them say you ain't beautiful! They can all get fucked, just be true to you...'

- Rihanna in the Emergency Room, 'I can't hurt you even though you hurt me...'

- Ne yo in 'Better Today', 'life's too short to dwell on all that's wrong...'

We arrived at the airport in way too little time. Josh jumped from the car, saying, 'Mom, that was awesome, really.' I drove away choking a little. Those kind of experiences don't happen often enough. Music is wonderful for that, it expresses the stuff we all feel - our realities, our pain, our hearts, our dreams...

***

Later the same day, Mike emailed, a little concerned Josh had gotten away ok. Mike always likes to do the airport run, because it gives him a chance to prep Josh for the challenges ahead, through spiritual accountability, prayer and verse repetition.

(acccckkkkkkkk.)

I replied, 'Yup, and we had a great time of spiritual encouragement and worship.'

***

Thing is, if you look, you can find inspiration everywhere. And if you listen hard enough, you can find the very things you believe expressed by the most unlikely sources. When you're able to find the right language - the world is a virtual open mic for communication. Where people will actually hear you. And you'll hear them.

I love that.