I have never known anything like it. Nothing else can take me to places, people and memories otherwise gone. It makes me feel everything all over again: the best moments and the worst moments. It is as if I am standing right where I was when I first heard these sounds. Right where I was during that period of time. I feel chills.
Music. It is some intangible mystery that is the realest thing I have ever known. Since I was a little girl, music has been my muse, my best friend. It has walked alongside me during times of bliss and jubilation, and has lifted me up in my darkest hours. For me, there is nothing that music can’t fix. How crazy is it how we can take a song and apply it to our lives exactly in the ways in which we need it? How crazy is it that we can create pathways in our brain with lyrics and melodies that have the force of pure magic?
You can listen to it over and over and it never changes. Just like the memories, that never change. You provide a soundtrack in your mind that goes along with your beautiful and chaotic life. And whether you intentionally listen to something for its applicability to your present circumstances, or whether you stumble upon a song haphazardly, it will leave its mark on you.
"When We Were Young" by Adele takes me back to a cold, biting December with an eerie sadness that couldn’t seem to slip away.
"Work Song" by Hozier takes me back to newfound love and the electricity I felt as it was unfolding.
"Anything But Mine" by Kenny Chesney reminds me of the first time I heard it at his concert, with the entire crowd of 20,000 people holding up their cellphone lights and illuminating the space we all joined in together.
"Born To Fly" by Sara Evans reminds of being a young girl and singing this in the summertime with my parents who thankfully instilled in me a love of country music.
"Fancy by Drake" takes me to a hot summer night, cruising on the highway with the windows down, and someone special next to me in the front seat.
"I Just Want To Dance With You" by George Strait reminds me of my 4-year-old self dancing with my father, standing on his feet.
"I Want You Back" by The Civil Wars brings me to a place when sorrow weighed so heavily on my heart, it was nearly impossible to hold my head up.
"Marry Me" by Train gives me chills and ignites my hope that the love I find to hold onto forever feels exactly as this song sounds.
"Found A Heart" by Emily Hearn makes me believe that love can work even in sometimes harsh, sometimes mundane and sometimes beautiful reality of everyday life.
I could list a hundred more songs and the feelings I have experienced in response to them. I find that achingly beautiful. Don’t you? Don’t you live for the feelings in life that fill you with so much amazement that it almost hurts? I think that music can transform your experiences and shape them into how you remember them after they are long gone. Music provides a melody to jam to, cry to, dance to, sing to and sometimes just simply listen to.
There are different speeds to it, just as there are in life. The same goes for the beat, the pitch, the style and the lyrics. Some periods in life are upbeat and some are not. Some are high and some are low. Some are slower, more quaint and elegant, while others are tragic, loud and piercing. And each day, each moment, you write the lyrics of your life.
You are the lyricist, and you get to decide how your song will sound.
