Saturday, August 28, 2010

Soundtrack to happy

We all have those songs in our lives, the songs that when we hear them, they take us back to a really wonderful, happy time. Music is powerful. Some of my most vivid memories are attached to different songs, and different times of my life can be recollected when I hear certain albums. Recently I was driving in the car, listening to my ipod on shuffle, when a particular song came on that I hadn't heard in some time, "Everything Must Go" by the Weakerthans. Immediately I was brought back to 2004, and waking up at Hank's house, that song being the alarm tone on his phone every morning. Hearing it made me feel like I was right there, waiting for the leaves to turn orange and red and yellow up in Prescott, laying together for hours, being young, and getting to know everything about one another in a time that really was the very beginning of us. This song reminds me of Hank, it reminds me of the fall, and it reminds me of the two or three days I would spend with him at a time, as we ventured into long-distance relationship territory during that autumn. When I hear it I feel inspired, I feel so very alive, and it truly makes my heart skip a small beat to think about what a wonderful, naive, and blissful time that was. Young love.



Almost exactly a year later we moved in together to our first place, and August fell away on the calendar as September arrived with an autumn chill. We celebrated our first anniversary, one year together during that month. Unfortunately I was incredibly sick, to point of not being able to leave the house and go on the romantic date Hank had planned for us to celebrate the occasion. I was stuffy, my stomach hurt, and I was experiencing the tail-end of a bad flu. I remember feeling beyond disappointed and let down. This wonderful man, who I'd spent the last year of my life falling in love with, had tried to plan this beautiful evening, and all I could do was sit on the couch in my pajamas and try to muster up the strength to do just about anything. I was so sad, and as the night progressed I only became sadder. It must have been 11 o'clock pm when Hank suddenly got up from our little nest and plugged in his ipod. All of a sudden Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" came on the speakers, and Hank reached for my hand. There, in our 1905 shoebox of an apartment, the streetlight illuminating us through the window while the wood floors creaked beneath our feet, we had our first dance to that beautiful song, to celebrate a most wonderful year. Three years later I'd hear that song again, when we shared our next "first" dance at our wedding. To this day, no matter how many time I hear it played, I still get the chills thinking back to all of the memories tied to it.



Do you have any "special" songs that remind you of a wonderful time? If you're inspired, post about it on your blog, and share the link here, or just add a comment telling us what song strikes a chord in your heart. I'd love to know!

Love,
Danielle

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