Old Ukuleles…

9/2/2026:

Old Ukuleles

I have no idea what is happening right now, but I have a story to share with you, in real time.

With my first kid, I made sure he started music lessons young. He had no specific ideas about what he wanted to do, but at his core, he is a chill and amenable kind of person; curious. Artistic. And so he went with my fantasy of raising the next Lenny Kravitz, and he picked up the guitar and went to town.

Only, at 5 years old on the ukulele, he did not have the musical ability of Lenny Kravitz. I’m not gonna get into the specifics, but suffice to say all of his music teachers gave me major side eye and just worked with him on what he was actually good at. Which was not, at the time, any format of the guitar.

Eventually, he gave up the ukulele and string instruments and settled into voice lessons, and I love listening to him sing as he moves through the house cooking, getting ready for school, or just being happy. 🙂 He has a deep, strong, classical voice, and he sings with abandon!

But I digress…let’s fast forward 11 years to right now, tonight, Wednesday, September 2, 2026.

That boy hasn’t picked up either a guitar or a ukulele since he gave up lessons entirely around 9-ish years ago.

Did I get rid of the guitars or ukuleles I bought? Absolutely not, because I don’t let go of anything. Once you’re mine…you are mine forever. 😀

But tonight, for some weird reason, at 10:34pmEST, he snuck all the way down to the basement to grab those long-abandoned string instruments. I only know this because I had just gone down to the basement a few moments before him to secure the house before we all went to bed so I stopped him on his way back upstairs to make sure he had turned off all the lights and left everything locked up. And here he comes, walking out of the darkness and the shadows, muttering something about guitars and my things and all of a sudden he’s standing in front of me holding his old guitar AND his old ukulele and my flabbers are gasted.

I immediately make myself chill out, because you can’t get too excited around teenagers. It spooks them and they will forever run from you like a gazelle being chased by a lion. I simply, quite calmly, say, “Oh! I thought you said something about your guitar. I only asked you what you were doing to make sure you left everything locked up in the basement. I don’t need to know anything about the guitar or anything you’re up to. I don’t even want to know (which is a total lie because we ALL KNOW I WANT TO KNOW WTF IS GOIN ON!!!)” And he immediately turns around and heads back up to his room, muttering, again, because that is what teenager do, about I don’t want to talk and I’m going back…..msiofehiow (I don’t know wtf he said).

A couple of minutes after he got back to his room, the sweet, sweet sounds of those old guitar strings started sailing through the air. He began to pick out the first chord progression his teacher attempted to teach him so many years ago. I wish I could sing it for you….ba bum buh baaaahhh! Over and over again until he got is just right, and then he just…kept playing.

WTF is happening right now? It is beyond joyful to hear him play again, and how did he just remember how to do this after not touching the guitar for almost a decade, and why is he all of a sudden interested in it right now?

Curious minds want to know. But mama-minds are just happy to hear the joyful noises wafting through the house.

I wish I had been able to write this faster so I could record the audio with the strings echoing in the background…but alas, he has moved on to teeth-brushing.

But I promise—When I find out what, the ef, is actually happening, I’ll let y’all know.

G’nite!

Here is an update, almost immediately!!!:

Okay, I’m back with an update. He came downstairs to get water while I recorded, and he told me what he was up to. He’s in his room creating stuff…something about video games, I don’t’ know…but he figured that he may as well record an acoustic intro for whatever he was working on because the software just sucked. And I am so happy right now I could burst. He actually remembered his music teacher’s name from all those years ago, which was Mr. Johann, and all the chords he was taught, which was beautiful, and he has decided he likes the ukulele, which is no longer hard for him to play.

I am going to bed in a state of sheer joy, tonight, y’all. HE VOLUNTARILY PLAYED MUSIC THAT I THOUGHT HE FORGOT!!!!! I DIDN’T JUST MAKE HIM DO SOMETHING HE DIDN’T HAVE THE ABILITY TO DO AND HATED ALL THOSE YEARS AGO!

I didn’t mess up as a mama. There have been a lot of moments reminding me of that, here lately, and I’m so grateful.

Okay, I got to go put that other one to bed—cause he’s still playing video games and has to be up at 6am. G’nite, for realz!

All the love, all the time!!!