I think just about everyone has a song that brings tears to their eyes. Don’t you?
Such a song often calls to mind an intense memory or feeling for someone we love or have loved. But maybe not.
What about the song that has your eyes filling up and you have no idea why?
This song, Remedy, by The Ambientalist, touches something within me with the very first few chords of the guitar. Every time. But I have no memory associated with this song whatsoever. It just came to me one day, and stopped me in my tracks emotionally.
Do you have a song that does this and you have no idea why? Let us know and feel free to provide a link.
I’m going to do a couple more posts like this on the different ways music affects us as it does. Stay tuned …
Music is a constant in my life. It’s one of the true and reliable consistencies that lifts me up, makes me smile, makes me cry, makes me feel. Always, feel.
This morning was one of those times that music both lifted me up and moved me deeply. We don’t always know why a particular song touches us at any particular time, but I find that it sometimes reaches inside us to say, “Look here. There is something for you to pay attention to.”
What it was for me today was gratitude, so much gratitude, for all the good in my life. So many things are going right, regardless of anything else in the world, and one song helped me truly know that.
When I write or draw or engage in a creative activity that requires me to be fully present, I listen to music that I cannot possibly sing along to. This is often music in the Solfeggio frequencies, Japanese Lo-Fi, Gregorian chant, or something like this song, Weightless. So incredibly beautiful.
** My apologies – this song has been removed by the original uploader to YouTube. I will try and find it again. Or something of equal beauty.
And because it seems apropos, here is a cemetery angel drawing I have not yet shared.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time today creating the meme at the top to also share on IG and FB, scanning the drawing, writing this post, and creating a new header. To be honest, I have other more pressing things to do, but the music drew me in and inspired me, and following where the music leads has never steered me wrong.
Please listen and enjoy Weightless. I hope you, too, are inspired.
It can’t make it all better, but it definitely does make it better.
In the morning, when I settle down to do some follow-up on my recent posts on Instagram; add a couple stories; check in and read recent updates of those I follow; it is always a very positive experience, because the algorithm knows what I want. Often, in these meanderings, I find new music, posted through one avenue or another.
It’s hard these days to read too much, though, without running headlong into posts on IG or Threads of the chaos that is consuming this country. It’s deeply disturbing, beyond saddening. And then I came across this song, Sand Drawing. A beautiful respite.
Judah Earl is a young American composer, arranger, and producer. He plays the cello, and in this song has woven in strains of calm and peace, a refuge from the daily assaults we are now subjected to. I dare say that it has something almost holy about it.
Music somehow always makes it better. I know, because a lifetime of leaning on its shoulders, bowing my head into notes that are timeless, tell me so.
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“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” ~ Osho
If you are a creative person, I’m sure you are periodically met with the awe and wonder of others who are genuinely admiring of your talent. Me, too. What these wonderful and complimentary people are generally unaware of are the challenges that come along with having our gifts.
Earlier today, I watched a new song/video from someone I greatly admire, and was marveling at how easy he makes it look. But I also know that’s not his whole story any more than it is when I share my artwork or my writing.
As an artist, there seems to be a natural desire to please an audience, but I also know that that’s not where it’s at. It’s about telling our truth, about letting our truth, and the reality of our experience, travel out into the world and resonate with the people who need and want to hear it.
In an environment where we are meticulously measured in likes, comments, shares, algorithms, and endless online assessments, we have to be braver than ever. We have to unlock, untie, unfold our truest meanings, love them for however paltry and confused they may sometimes seem, and share them anyway. The world needs us. I believe that.
Bloom by Lullanas is a sweet, kinda shy, maybe first-love song, a cover originally by The Paper Kites, but done quite differently. Sung by two super-talented sisters, Bloom became an instant favorite of mine. Take a listen …
