Music- A bridge to the past....

It's amazing how music can affect us. You can be having a perfectly normal day, when all of a sudden a song comes on and you're taken back to a different time. Maybe you're driving down the road, and a song comes on that takes you back to that vacation when you lost that friend. Maybe you're talking with a friend when their phone rings, and the ringtone takes you back to that prom when you danced the night away with a high school love. Maybe you're in church and they play a song that takes you back to being a kid and hearing your mom sing it throughout the house while cleaning. Maybe you have your itunes on random and a song comes on that reminds you of your first heartbreak in high school. Or maybe you're dancing the night away at a wedding reception when the DJ puts on a song that takes you back to college and the life you had planned for yourself then.... and then the very next song takes you back to a neighbor day in good ol' Hackleburg when you did that same dance over, and over, and over with 5 of the best friends you've ever had.

It's truly amazing how music can take you back. Music and lyrics can be so much more powerful then we realize. One minute you're fully living in the present, and then a song comes on, and you're taken back.... back to a better time, a sadder time, a harder time, an amazing time. I experienced it several different times this weekend, and each time it truly took my breath away. One of these songs put a smile on my face and made me miss my girls from college.... one song felt like a knife going through my heart because it reminded me of such heartache... another brought tears to my eyes thinking of my mom's beautiful smile. Music is a link to so much of our past. What would the world be like without those songs? Sometimes it hurts to hear them, but sometimes.... most of the time.... those songs bring smiles to our faces and remind us of the people and times that helped to make us who we are today. I think that's the reason most people enjoy music... because by music, we can mark so many milestones and time periods in our lives. It's the one thing that can trigger the most random memories. It's one of the few things that will keep us forever linked to our pasts, no matter where we are in the present or where we will go in the future.