Revel in the Soundtrack of Your Life

Revel in the Soundtrack of Your Life

Life really stinks sometimes. I don't care who you are or where you live or how much money you have in the bank, everybody has days where everything you touch falls apart, everything you hear is bad news, and everything you see makes you wish you had remained beneath the insulating covers of your bed.

One of the things I have found that helps me when those days come crashing down is to listen to music. For my birthday, my son assembled a collection of 18 tracks of some of my favorite songs and burned them to a CD. It's amazing how therapeutic listening to those lyrics has been.

Don Henley sings "It may be raining, but there's a rainbow above you." A line from "Desperado," those words capture the sentiment of bad times, when difficulties cloud our view of better days to come. Looking up proves nearly impossible when we find ourselves mired in misery, but man, what a cool thing it is to see that rainbows continue to emerge in spite of our circumstances.

Louis Armstrong croons, "I see trees of green, red roses, too. I see them bloom, for me and you, and I say to myself. 'What a wonderful world.'" Again and again, this song has served as the soundtrack of life for thousands of people. As complex as the world seems to be, the everyday joys endure. Hold a baby, smile at a stranger, sing because you can. Do these things in remembrance of what a wonderful world it is.

Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses rocks away the tension with "Sweet Child O' Mine." Like a lot of rock songs, it's not so much the lyrics but the smoking guitar and searing vocals that strengthen your resolve not to let the buzzards keep you down. "Where do we go now?" wails Axl. It's the question often asked but seldom fully answered. Journey's Steve Perry sings about the Wheel in the Sky and "I don't know where I'll be tomorrow." Maybe, instead of feeling lost, we should just admit to being confused.

Elton John begs "Don't' let the sun go down on me." I think about the people who are there, lighting the darkness, in times like those when "All my pictures seem to fade to black and white." This song bemoans the disabilities of complacency and indifference. It's an obvious but endearing promise that in life, the sun also rises.

There will be more editions of "Mom's Music" compiled, I am certain. I need to hear Billy Joel sing "Son, can you play me a memory, I'm not really sure how it goes. But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete when I wore a younger man's clothes." Like the Piano Man, I like to play the memories that compel others to feel all right. And, I want to shout with the gospel of "God is Trying to Tell You Something:"

Can't sleep at night and you wonder whyMaybe God is trying to tell you something.Crying all night long, something's gone wrongMaybe God is trying to tell you something.

So if you are hurting. If you are full of despair. If you have lost your way. If you fear tomorrow. If you feel lonely. If you ache with loss. If you need a hug or a kick in the rear. Listen to music. Sing yourself a song. Turn up the volume on what makes each day more bearable, perhaps even happy.

Revel in the soundtrack of your life.