Melodic Pictures

I'm always amazed when I hear a song that so captures a moment in my life that when I hear the song later it's as vivid as having just breathed in the initial moment itself. So clear that I can see it; almost physically feel it. Recalling the memory of once was as though, even if ever so briefly, it was once again. Music does that to me...

Melodic pictures of my life. That is what MUSIC is to me. Music takes my mind (and heart) to the place in my brain that stores up all the things I hope to always remember and sometimes those I would rather forget. It pulls them to the surface like a lifeguard rescues one from the depths of the sea. Rising from the dark...out of the water- breaking through the layers of all the all the stored information to reach the surface and breathe out and into me the memory...life.

Music is fluid and alive and all around. Different from the processed snapshot taken for the scrapbook only to be put on the shelf; often long forgotten. It transcends a classic picture that someone takes to remember a time in life that is passing, trying to hold on to it for a bit longer...to remember the color of a sweater or a sunset, the jagged outline of a jaw or a mountainside...the way you felt with your first love or on your first big trip away from home or when you first realized that there is more to this life and...just wanting to hold on. So that we don't forget that we were here and there and that we experienced life...We DID...and we have proof...see it there in the picture...it was a moment and it was captured. You see, Music acknowledges the moment in private kind of way. Much like a secret or an inside joke- you and the music understand the meaning, the undercurrent, even if no one else knows or cares.

But with music you don't need a book of pictures to unlock the memory- just the melody inside your head. Music often has a way of unlocking the door, or the floodgate to more memories. That is one reason why music is so powerful. It can move people when they don't want to be moved. And sometimes, if your lucky, it moves you before you even realize you are being swept away. And though, music may not physically testify that you had a moment or were here or there, with him or her; it can not only recall a memory but be a memory or experience in itself.

Music is fluid. It ebbs and flows and is all around us...as is life and the moments that make it so memorable.

Do your memories have a melody? I wonder...what will my next memory will sound like?