Giving Thanks Day 14 ~ Let the Music of Your Life Play On

Today I am thankful, and truly grateful for music. Shakespeare wrote "If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it". I truly feel that at times my life is a musical, a series of one song interconnecting with another to a time, a place, an event...there has always been a melody that coincides with each scene. I joke about it all the time, that I have theme songs running through my head throughout the day. I can clearly remember, down to the exact details, certain events or moments when I hear a certain song played on the radio. You know the kind of song that takes you back in time the instant that you hear it, and you recall the time when the song was first released, and the memories that seem to surface as effortlessly as the lyrics you are singing along to it. And then there are songs that you hear and the words and melody seem to tell the story of your life, haunting lyrics that capture a feeling, speaks to your very soul, or in such a way that you related to each word as it is sung. There are songs that are empowering, some that make you smile, songs that you instantly crank up the volume, and if you are like me, you sing wildly and way off key. There are songs that make you want to move, maybe slightly toe tapping to all out on the dance floor dancing. There are songs you learn all the words to and love to sing, and then if you are like me, you create new words to songs and sing a sometimes comical version to the melody (something I seemed to have passed along to my boys, the art of being silly with song). I was raised on old school country music, Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker, Lynn Anderson, Patsy Cline, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, etc...their albums I remember playing over and over singing into a pine cone weight that detached from my mothers cuckoo clock in the formal living room. I didn't really listen to a lot of mainstream music until high school and can remember spending tons of money on records and tapes just because I loved one song by an artist. And in college, I took the required music appreciation course and fell in love with classical melodies, the kind of music that just moves you in ways words cannot. Today, I have a pretty eclectic taste and enjoy a wide variety of music....with the exception of rap (unless it is old school). If I hear a song that I connect with I instantly fall in love with it. I love acoustic versions the most, I love a song with a great hook, a melody that stays with you throughout the day. We all have our favorites, songs that have special meaning to us, ones that we choose to hear over and over, and even songs that we do not ever want to listen to again. To me, music is the outburst of my soul and what feelings sound like. I am thankful for the music in my life, each and every beat along the way...may it play on ♥