Category: music

Singing Bliss

“There’s only one word for this, it’s bliss,” so goes the song by Alice Peacock and her’s is not the only song that can elicit that amazing feeling of bliss that comes from being surrounded by good music. I’ve been known to bebop down the aisles of my local grocery store when a song I loves come on. I used to restrain my joy at good music, but I’ve learned to embrace the music and let it flow through me.

Growing up, we listened to Elvis as my mom had been a fan of Elvis’ since when she was a girl and she passed that love on to me. I remember rushing home from school to watch Elvis on the after school movie. Although all of those movies were silly and always followed the same format, I loved watching them with my mom. My mom always told me that she loved Elvis because he reminded her of my dad and looking at the photos of my dad as a young man, I can see the resemblance. My husband always teased me about my love of Elvis until I told him that I loved Elvis because listening to his songs reminded me of the times I’d spent listening to Elvis and watching those silly movies with my mom.

A few years ago, I discovered Johnny Cash and burned a bunch of Elvis and Johnny Cash on my little Nokia phone. I loaned the phone to my mom and she told me that when my dad was dying in the hospital, she played that old time rock and roll for him. That gave those songs special meaning for me and I always feel blessed that those songs were on that phone and could give my dad a little bit of comfort in his last days.

Songs tell stories and elicit emotions like words alone can’t do. Growing up, I remember listening to the song Teddy Bear by Ray Sovine, my eyes always welled up in tears as the kindness the truckers showed Teddy Bear. It reminded me that there is good in this world and that people do care about one another. God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood is another song that always has tears streaming down my face as I listen and remember that there are good people in this world and that we are truly blessed to live in this country.

I’m not a fan of the rap my kids listen to, but some of today’s music is magickal and tells real stories. Natasha Bedingfield’s song Unwritten is another song that sends chills up my spine and reminds me that my life isn’t over and I still have choices in this world. I have to confess that Gretchen Wilson’s Red Neck Woman could be my anthem. I love that song as it empowers me to embrace my earthy and trashy side that loves playing in the mud and saying “He** yes.”

The amazing power of music is evident in the video below that was shot in a Belgium train station. Although this was set up as a publicity stunt and a lot of the dancers were professionals, it is amazing to me to watch the people in the audience get into it and start singing along. Quite a few people drop what they’re doing and jump in for the sheer joy experiencing the music. It is blissful to watch them drop their cares and worries about “what people will think” and sing and dance for the sheer joy of singing and dancing.

That’s when singing becomes true bliss when you’re not worried about how awful your voice is, how weird people will think you are for singing and dancing along, and you’re just immersed in the music and feeling the sheer bliss of song.

Pandora’s Bliss

Pandora’s name inspires paranoia about the dangers of curiosity and how poking your nose where it doesn’t belong can unwittingly unleash all sorts of demons. At least that’s the lesson we all learned from Greek mythology about the first woman on earth whose curiosity lead her to open a secret box and unleash all sorts of horrors on the people of earth.

Unfortunately, we all have a tendency to forget a few things about the myth such as that at the very bottom of Pandora’s box was hope. That’s a lesson we can all hold tight to in these turbulent times for as long as we keep our hope alive things will get better. The other lesson we forget is that Pandora’s very name means all gifted as she was endowed with many talents including beauty and the the gift of music.

Pandora and her musical gift inspired the Music Genome Project to name their internet site Pandora. Pandora is truly a magickal mystery tour through the land of music. By plugging in your favorite song, you can create your very own Internet music channel that plays music similar to your favorites. The algorithms and computer science behind the site are way above my head, but at a very basic level plug in the song you like and you’ll get a lot more songs like it.

So what does Pandora have to do with my sixty days of bliss? Well, like may couples hubby and I don’t always have time to sit down and talk about the things that really matter. I gravitate to my laptop and he gravitates to the TV and even though we’re in the same room, we could be on different planets as much as we interact. Hopefully, Pandora is going to help me change that.

The other night, I was upstairs and hubby was downstairs and he came up and realized I was listening to some really good Blues. He sat down and we started having a conversation about life, about the kids, about music, and about a lot of other stuff. Some of it mattered and some of it didn’t, but the bottom line was that Pandora helped open up a box of conversation and that really mattered. I even changed the station from the Blues I learned to love in Memphis to a classic rock station we both enjoyed.

It was so relaxing to close the lid on the laptop and pay attention to what my husband was really saying without the the distraction of the TV, the latest thriller I was reading, or the ever present work. I’m hoping that now that we’ve opened Pandora’s blissful box, we’ll remember to open it a little more often and rejoice in the music and conversation.