November Thankfulness Day 18.....of thee I Sing

Music has the power to fill your soul. Every single day I am thankful for the gift of music. No matter what kind of music person you are, there are songs out there that reach into the center of your being and fulfill you.  There are all types of music for all types of people and I really have a passion for a wide selection of musical tastes. I love Bluegrass as much as I love Hip-Hop. I can listen to Alternative music all day long as easily as I can listen to Pop. The best thing about the digital age is that you can shuffle all your favorite artists and all your favorite genres and enjoy a rainbow of songs each and every day. Sometimes I use music as an escape.  When my older daughter left for the Naval Academy, it was really tough for me.  It was a huge adjustment and I missed her terribly. I found myself skipping through some of my favorite songs because they reminded me of her so I couldn't bare to listen.  One day a song by Audioslave came on the radio and it became my favorite song during those first few months.  The song is, "Doesn't Remind Me" and has a bunch of funny lyrics like: "I like studying faces in a parking lot, Cause it doesn't remind me of anything...I like driving backwards in the fog, Cause it doesn't remind me of anything..." Ironically, whenever I hear "Doesn't Remind Me" - it now reminds me of my daughter, but it served its purpose well back then. Whenever I hear the song, "Superman" by Five for Fighting, I always think of 9/11.  I heard that song the very day the towers were struck. "Wish that I could cry,  Fall upon my knees, Find a way to lie, About a home I'll never see."  That part makes me cry almost every time I hear it. Some songs bring pure joy.  "At Last" by Etta James is the pure embodiment of love. "At last, my love has come along, My lonely days are over." I melt the second I hear the first note.  I want to immediately grab Mr. Yesteryear Acres and dance while Etta sings. It is a perfect song that has stood the test of time.  I can always count on Jack Johnson to put a smile on my face.  I own every single song he has ever recorded and love them all.  I think he is brilliant and his songs fit my mood no matter how I am feeling.  I love his easy style. Alison Krauss has a voice of an angel and I can literally feel happiness pour into me whenever she sings. Ben Taylor (who is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon) is a particular favorite.  I just love listening to him. "Ava Maria" by Charlotte Church is so beautiful, it almost brings me to my knees. If I ever want an immediate smile followed by instant dancing around the house, all I have to do is listen to "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini. "Hey I put some new shoes on, And everything suddenly is right" gets me dancing every time.  I think I would stop whatever I was doing just to dance to that tune.  It just feels happy.  I love music so much that I recently made personal ringtones for my family members so that when they call, I can listen to songs that make me smile.  When my sister Jennifer calls, "27 Jennifers" plays on my cell phone.  That one was a pretty easy one to pair up.  My older daughter and my mom are big hip-hop fans so they each get their own hip-hop tune.  I gave my mom a Latin Reggaeton hip-hop song.  Every time she calls - you will find me doing a bit of a salsa.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres ringtone was harder to come up with.  He used to have this very annoying ringtone which was not a song but a repetitive "I want you to answer your phone" done in a vampire voice. It got old rather quickly.  Now that I have figured out how to assign my downloaded songs into ringtones - I have a whole new music list to choose from. I have over 2,274 songs that are very organized, classified and rated, so it took some thinking to choose just the right one.  Today I finally figured it out which song to use, so now when Mr. Yesteryear Acres calls me, I hear, "But I would walk 500 miles, And I would walk 500 more, Just to be the man who walked 5,000 miles, To fall down at your door."  And remarkably, Mr. Yesteryear Acres really would walk 5,000 miles. I am lucky that way. So the next time you are singing along, tapping your toes, twirling on the dance floor, bopping to the beat, think how lucky we are to have a world full of song. Thank you to all the songwriters, musicians, and singers that fill our lives with song.... Of thee I sing!