The Sound of Love
The assignment seems deceptively simple: Write about something you love. But that isn’t the real assignment. The assignment is in actuality: Write about something you love and don’t suck, because this is someone else’s blog you’re posting on, missy.
So I have to admit off the bat, I’m feeling a little intimated. But here it goes:
I love music. I LOVE music. Music has been an integral part of my life for nearly forty years. I’ve sung in choirs, choruses and glee clubs. I’ve been in rock bands and folk groups. My high school years were marked by which musical I was rehearsing. I attend concerts and music festivals alone if I don’t have anyone to go with me. I’ve played, with uneven success, piano and guitar. I write music although not as much as I want. I go to a church 40 miles away because their music is THAT much better.
Music has the ability to immediately change my emotional state. I can feel apathetic, angry or depressed and the right song pulls me up out of the fog and points me back in the right direction. I have a theme song (and you should too!). One study shows that music activates the same pleasure centers in the brain as sex does. If that isn’t a reason to listen to music everyday then I don’t know what is.
In middle school I called radio stations with fingers poised over the “record” button on my boom box hoping the DJ wouldn’t talk over the intro to my favorite song. I’ve practiced my guitar until blisters prevented me from holding onto the strings. I’ve traveled huge distances and willingly gave up large amounts of sleep to spend a few precious hours with my favorite bands.
I’ve used music to get through countless late-night college assignments. I’ve sung to my newborn daughters in the middle of the night every song I knew just to get them to sleep. I’ve sped down country roads on late summer nights with the windows down and the radio up.
I’ve cried over breakups not only because my heart was broken but because I also lost a man who could make a kick-ass mix tape.
Most of us have stories when music saved our lives. Musicians put into words what our hearts yearn to express whether it is love, despair, or anything in between.
Music can make friends of enemies by providing a launching point of common ground. It can take people who’ve never met before and turn them into life-long companions. Music doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, how you dress, or about the color of your skin. Music doesn’t tell you whom to love or what religion to practice. Music is unconditional. It touches your soul and expects nothing in return.
So today I celebrate my love for music. As journalist Eric Olson once wrote, “Music is what life sounds like.”
Regina Verow is a personal coach, workshop facilitator and author of the blog Creatively Conscious: Aware. Awake. Alive. You can find out more about Regina at www.reginaverow.com, on her Facebook Page, Creatively Conscious: Aware. Awake. Alive. or follow her on Twitter @reginaverow.
This is an excellent post, Regina. I love it. "I called radio stations with fingers poised over the “record” button on my boom box hoping the DJ wouldn’t talk over the intro to my favorite song." That made me laugh out loud as I remember spending hours doing that.
ReplyDeleteI love how you described music and it is all true. This is an exceptional blog post. Thank you for sharing it with us.