Do-Re-Mi

Peggy got me thinking yesterday when she mentioned that she had a theme song of the day for her birthday. It got me thinking about music and the major role it has played in life. I remember as a kid when we would take family vacations every summer, we would always drive through the night. I would get to ride in the front seat as my dad drove because I couldn't sleep in the car. Part of my duties for the night-time drive was controlling the stereo. I used to love flipping through all of his cassette tapes and finding my favorites. My love of music is something I learned from my dad. I believe my love for random music at random times came from those nights of listening to his mixed tapes as we drove.

Then there were my teenage years of thinking I was the next Britney Spears. Turning my stereo up as loud as I thought my mother would let me have it (or sometimes louder) and belting each song at the top of my lungs. Looking back on those days now, I apologize to my family for the years of painful singing that must have come from my bedroom. My brothers would be outside on the basketball court picturing that they were shooting the winning shot of a national championship game, and I was inside my room picturing myself in front of a sold out crowd as the next Celine Dion.

This love of music in my youth turned into a gift I liked to share with others beginning in my teen years and running through to today. In high school, I took part in a group called CLC, which was a group of my classmates that met each week with a teacher from school to just talk about life’s issues. At the end of our two years together, I put together a CD of songs that reminded me of them, of our group, and of the times we had spent together laughing, crying, and sharing memories. Each song was representative of a specific person in the group or a specific memory I had of us together. I wrote a letter to all of them along with the CD, explaining the reasoning for each song to be on the CD. This was the first of a few times that I would put a CD like that together for someone I cared about deeply.

For me, music has been a way of expressing myself. I have put together those compilation CDs, I have put pictures/PowerPoints to music (as I did for my friends for graduation last year), I have sent music to a friend who needs a pick-me-up, and I have shared music to celebrate holidays (such as Peanut Butter Jelly Time). Now, I would like to share my love of music with each of you every time that I make a post. I will sign off each time with my song of the day. My song of the day often matches the mood I’m in when I’m writing the post. Look for the first song of the day at the end of today’s post.

Now, what about you? How have you used music in a creative way recently? Have you ever shared the gift of music with other people? What is your song of the day today?

Signing off until tomorrow with…The Song of the Day