Music influences us all

September 10, 2008

Dear friends,

I am a sap. I don't think anyone would guess by just looking at me, but it is true. Sure, I have my moments where I would not fit the image or the statement, but I listen to folk, I cry at commercials and beauty. I have cried just looking at trees and the sky...eh, I told you. I can't help it. Sometimes life just catches up with me and I realize how lucky I am. I realize how beautiful life really is. See why I listen to folk?

Anyway, I was watching Ellen and Joshua Radin was a part of their wedding...fell in love. No, not with Portia. Although, I am jealous. They had a video with this song.

Today - Joshua Radin

Shoelaces untied
You can dry your eyes
Perfect shadows alive
Behind us
This is the day i make you mine

The way your hair lies
sometimes unrecognized
All the way from these today
on a train
Nothing to say if theres still time

But you are the one
I've been wating for today
And here comes the sun
That's been baiting on today

Lately i've lost my tongue
Today you found the sun
I know not long has grown
Well i thank god u came along

But you are the one
I've been waitng for today
And here comes the sun
That's been baiting on today

You looked right through me
When there was no one else
I sat beside you and became myself
Today... today

You are the one
I've been waiting for today
And here comes the sun t
Thats been baiting on today

And I thought to myself....there are songs that I have in my life that remind me of people and of moments. For instance, I don't think that I can listen to Madeline Peyroux and Brett Dennen without thinking about my time in Riverside with a good friend, the long night of talking, and the bench.

I can't listen to Counting Crows without thinking about another friend and our trip to Palm Springs, talking about life, and reliving the moments we have shared through friendship.

Counting Crows, House of Pain and other road trip specials are reserved for my friend from Texas.

I can't listen to Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Aqua, and pretty much any other bar/country song without thinking about my college sorority sisters and the yacht club. Add a few more random lip jam hits and you have all of college.

*NSync is reserved for Residence Life. Hip Hop reserved for all the clubs I have been dragged to over the years. Ani DiFranco and my mentor from Sonoma who dedicated "In or Out" to me.

Catie Curtis' Radical is reserved for one of my students from Pitzer, my ex for some songs, and then Magnolia Street really seemed to make perfect sense when my partner came into the picture.

Songs for inner emotions and feelings...those songs that you have to hear to really understand me...well, the main songs are...
1. Silhouette - Catie Curtis
2. The World Spins Madly On - The Weepies
3. Nobody Knows me at all - The Weepies
4. My Stupid Mouth - John Mayer
5. I am a rock - Simon and Garfunkel
6. Please forgive me - David Gray
7. Blessed - Brett Dennen
8. Troubled Mind - Catie Curtis
9. A Long December - Counting Crows
10. Quidam - Cirque du Soleil

Then, there are the songs that just remind me of my wife. I am lucky. I married her once and I get to marry her again. I can't help but hear Today by Joshua Radin and fall for her again.

Here are hers. They will be hers always.

1. Today - Joshua Radin
2. Power of Two - Indigo Girls
3. Book of Love - Peter Gabriel
4. Desert Sunrise - Brett Dennen
5. A Case of You - Joni Mitchell
6. Have a little faith in me - John Hiatt
7. See the World - Gomez
8. Let Go - Imogen Heap
9. Gotta Have You - The Weepies
and others...mostly spanning Brett Dennen, Catie Curtis, The Weepies, Colbie Caillat, Indigo Girls, Melissa Ferrick, and Joshua Rabin. I could be forgetting some, but that covers it for now.

Moments and songs. It's an incredible thing....

I can't help but think of Steve Miller Band, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Donovan, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, and other classic rock when I think of high school.

College was a blur of country, rock, boy bands....haha....the years of being DJ for a party here-and-there.

I can name moments and conversations with people where music reminds me of that conversation and moment that will be in my heart forever. I remember the feeling in the music that made my life change the second I heard the feeling.

I go to my ex-minister buddy for blues and jazz. My friend from Riverside for songs that hit the soul and make me remember who I am. My first love for songs that challenge me. My sisters for songs that make me remember what it is to laugh and have fun. My brother for those new moments. My wife for songs that complete me. I have a song for everyone. I have a moment for everyone. I am so thankful of those moments and times. Those feelings that moved me. Made me believe again. Made me live again. Made me love again. Made me be real again.

And to My wife,

But you are the one
I've been waitng for today
And here comes the sun
That's been baiting on today

You looked right through me
When there was no one else
I sat beside you and became myself
Today... today

You are the one I have been waiting for my whole life.
I love you. There is no one else.

To all those who read this, I encourage you to go and find your songs and those songs that remind you of others. Play them in the comforts of your home and reflect on the memories they have created. Remember the times you laughed, you cried, and you shared moments with others that have touched your soul. The beauty of life is in the smallest of things. Connect to those. Reach out to those. Find those. Live, laugh, love...

Stacy