Soundtrack and Harmony

I'm not surprised when things like this happen.  When the most rediculously fitting (and sometimes obscure) song starts to play in a public space, shifting the landscape of my experience into a new colour, a colour I can taste.  Or, even a few random songs but played in a certain order, like a combination that unlocks a story only my own heart knows. 

Do you know what I mean?

Sometimes it's one song that follows you, and plays in the most unexpected places.  Over and over again.  What is it trying to tell you?  It may be nothing more complicated than, I'm here. I'm still here. I'm still here. 

And so are you.

This is a personal experience, I know not everyone experiences music the same way.  Some people I know never listen to the lyrics of a song, while others clutch onto them as though each word were a single poem. 

Take my brother (please!--just kidding), my brother used to listen to music very LOUDLY when...well, actually, he has always listened to music loudly.  As a kid I would constantly hear his music through my bedroom wall.  I remember him playing the intro to his new favourite song until the triumphant moment when the bass kicked in.  And then stop.  And start the song over again.  5 counts of 8.  Stop.  Start again.

Over and over and over. 

He clearly loved that build up, and the satisfying blast of sounds coming together for the first time.  What parts of music are especially satisfying for you?

Here are some things that are true for me about music,

specifically, when it comes to music as a soundtrack to my life:

 

Music Brings Stories To Life

You know how penetrating moments in film glisten gorgeously with the swell of the perfect song, the haunting lyrics that play lightly over an ordinary day?  For me, music often delivers the emotional truth of what I'm looking at.  It mirrors what is going on that can't always be seen on the outside.

As music brings stories to life, it also stores them.  Music can hold memories of our life stories with such overwhelming clarity, bringing back times and places locked deeply away in our hearts and minds.  One song can unlock stories we've forgotten we had, and all the feelings and sensual memories that went along with it.  Pretty amazing, really. 

 

Music Is The World Of Emotion, Harmonizing Along The Melody Of Our Experiences

I have nothing to add to that truth.  I just feel it, so powerfully.

 

Music Heals

I use music as medicine.  Music is my very own apothecary in the form of an ocean, offering me endless choices. 

I can dip into it and pull out what I need.  I can dive into the roaring waves and let them throw me ferociously into the depths of my feeling. I can walk along the shore without getting my feet wet and be at peace with the silence of sand. 

You have this same musical medicine available to you.  But you know that of course.

And the beauty of this oceanic apothecary is that you can self medicate as you see fit.  Sometimes, if you are sad or angry, the best thing to do is suck all the poison out by listening to music even more sad or angry than you are in that moment.  Mirroring your own pain is a great way to let the emotions flow.  This past fall, when my partner and I split up and I knew I'd soon be leaving our beloved home, I played this heartbreaking song on repeat and I wept and wept and wept, releasing so much saddness.

Just as mirroring emotion can be healing, it can also be powerful to try the opposite approach, and dose on the emotion we want to create more of.  Music can wake us up, pump us up, turn us on, and apparently, move our bodies without us even knowing it.  Music can be irresistible. 

Music moves, and that is why I believe it to be so healing emotionally.  It helps our emotions travel, shake, groove and rise.  It takes us from a stuck place and brings us back into rhythms.  Music keeps our blood flowing.  Music is pulse.

Choosing My Own Soundtrack Reminds Me That I Am Always Choosing My Life

You can take a scene, say, you blowing out birthday candles or looking out the window of a train, and put any song to it.  You can change the mood, the story, the energy of every moment.  You can make it funny, ironic, bittersweet, sorrowful, euphoric, easy or delightful. Even if the music is in your imagination, you can select it, sing it to yourself, feel it.  It changes everything.  Soundtrack is a powerful element to any story.

As I imagine myself moving boxes out of my former home and into a storage space, I can try on different songs and see which one I want to move forward from.  There are no wrong answers, happy is not always better than sad.  What matters is that I get to be thoughtful and participate in my life.  The act of choosing my soundtrack is really an invitation to choose the kind of life I want to be living at any given moment; witnessing the birth of a child or folding my towels at the laundromat, this is all the stuff of life.

And Music Makes The Stuff Of Life Even More Beautiful.  Or, perhaps more accurately, it just helps me to see the beauty that is already there. 

One last truth about music today: Serendipitous Songs Weaving In And Out Of My Days Make Me Feel In Harmony With My Own Path.  I feel as though music is often used as a wink from the universe, letting me know I'm still warm.

What is true for you about music?  What songs are on the soundtrack of your life this season?

I'd love to hear from you.

Comments

[Danette]

Note to Self: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is playing in the cafe where I'm writing about what I need to let go of. And you know what this means, don't you? Rome. That's all I'm saying. xo

[Andieasawriter.blogspot.com]

I do know exactly what you mean. It's also so perfect that you have referenced a U2 song directly above.

[mb]

seeing your love letter to your garden this morning made me remember i wanted to come and read this music post, back before my browser crashed one of those times and forgot to save all my tabs for me. haha. and every single thing you wrote here is true for me about music. "nothing but the whole wide world" has been on repeat this afternoon, (jakob dylan) and i'm not even sure what all the words are yet, but the steady beat and his soothing voice are my current soundtrack. :)