This song has always been one of my favorite love songs. I’m not entirely sure why I was drawn to love songs so strongly in my childhood years, especially since there were no girls in my everyday life in Trinidad.
There was only one girl I knew well –the daughter of one of my parents’ close friends. I had a huge crush on her, though I never would have called it that back then. She lived an hour away, and I only saw her during occasional visits. Distance did most of the work, turning brief moments into something larger, something held together by imagination and music.
Open Arms became a place where feelings could exist safely, even if they had nowhere else to go. Long before love was lived, it was felt –quietly, from afar.
And as a small reminder of time’s steady march: this week, someone thought I was 70 years old. Am I getting old without knowing it or just carrying a lifetime of songs a little too well?