Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Soundtrack of My Life

As I've mentioned before, I like all different kinds of music.  What's great about music is that you can hear a song and you're immediately transported back to that timeframe in your life.  We associate memories and feelings with certain songs, and no matter how many times we've heard it or how long it's been, those word pictures form...

Like when Janet Jackson comes on the radio, I'm immediately transported to lip syncing with a hairbrush, my hair in a spiral perm, losing myself in "Nasty" and "What Have You Done for Me Lately?".  Or when I hear Whitney Houston, I'm in my leg warmers and leotard, or sitting at my Aunt Lisa Eldridge's watching The Bodyguard.  "Islands in the Stream" find me as a three or four year old, with a wooden microphone, singing "I Love Industry". 

How can I forget music videos to "Another Brick in the Wall" and pom-pom routines to "Shout" and flashlight routines to Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" (I like to dream... on... and 5-6-7-and 8).  "I Got Friends in Low Places" as Livi and I convinced our sixth grade friends to participate in our real-life soap opera.  Poison and Bon Jovi bring back memories of late night videos as we gossiped about our latest crushes...

"Summer Lovin'" as I watched Grease at least 50 times the summer between my Junior and Senior year with Candace and Jenine... "Low Rider", "Brown-Eyed Girl", and the Stevie Miller Band's
"The Joker" as I rode around with Jennifer... laps around and around McDonalds and Breathitt High School's parking lot. "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees blaring as my teenaged self sang along, windows rolled down in my '86 Camaro...

"Better Man" by Pearl Jam brings a smile to my face because Wallace actually thought it was a romantic song... as in, she can't find any guy that is any better.  He's still not convinced that his version isn't right.  "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eye Cherry, though probably not a well-known song, always makes me a little love-sick because I remember listening to it on Sundays as Wallace got ready to head back to Ohio for a week away.  Pachabeli's Cannon in D was played at our wedding and it still chokes me up...

and then there are songs like "Mayberry" by Rascal Flatts because it was on the charts when Caleb was born, and we listened to it on the way home.  "Barbara Ann" because Caleb loved to listen to it...

I could go on, and on... and tonight as I took my walk I did just that.  I had my Ipod on Shuffle, as always, and every song that played I couldn't help but think about not just the song, and the memories, and the feelings that went with it... some good, some bad. 

And then I came in and read this, tonight, in a story in Guideposts magazine.  Robin Roberts said, "We sing the melody to our life's song, but the people who touch us provide the harmony. And underneath it all, guiding us and supporting us, is the rhythm of our faith." See, all those songs I listed above only brought about memories because of the people that were in my life at the time.  And the beauty in the music, if you really listen?  It's in the harmony... because everyone can make their own melody.  Only special people have an ear for harmony... thank You, God, for the harmony in my life.  May I add some special notes to someone else's...

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