My Music

I grew up listening to an eclectic collection of music. In my house, you might hear opera one minute, then Johnny Cash playing loudly the next. My mother would play the piano while I was in bed trying to get to sleep. She played the same songs over and over. They became comforting and familiar.
When I was nine years old I was given my first clock radio for my birthday. It was amazing with a timer that let me listen to music as I drift to sleep, and it would turn off all on its own. I could listen to music of my choosing. I would watch the numbers flip as the minutes went by, trying to stay awake to hear that week's number one hit on the top 40 list. The glow from that radio's light was a beacon in my dark room that created an island refuge on my bed.

In high school I was given a large stereo. The speakers stood on the floor and reached almost to my hips. The sound was amazing! It beat the clock radio by a long shot. It also had a cassette player that could record songs from the radio. I made many personal cassettes by waiting for that perfect song to come on the radio then running over to push the record button on the stereo. It was tricky, because I needed to turn off the recording just at the last possible moment before the radio announcer came on and still get as much of the song as possible recorded. It was an incredible feeling being able to have the songs I loved, I needed, available to play on demand. I even tried to get creative and record songs in a certain order waiting for days to hear the right song play on the radio at the right time for my personal recordings.

Again at night, my dark room would have a faint glow from the stereo as I played music. Those huge speakers were turned towards each other with my head nestled in between them. I felt the music.

A few years ago I saw a commercial showing how someone could make their own music mix on a CD. Incredible. I felt hungry to make my own CD's. What incredible power. Oh the possibilities. I learned the art of downloading and pulling files, of mixing and burning.

Music holds power. It is my drug of choice. And now?
I have a wonderful little device that fits in my hand, earphones that surround me with beats, melodies, ethereal chords. I have found Hem, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, DeVotchka, Taken By Trees, Six Part Seven, and many others. I can drift to inner worlds, feel emotional boosts, soothe hurts, get energized, meditate, so many facets of my music. I am absolutely convinced the Ipod was created for me. It is the best music gift I have ever been given. Thank you, Mark.

Run for Congo Women

I have been looking for motivation to exercise my whole life. Actually, I am always running. I run to the store, to pick-up children, to meetings. But I have never been able to run for exercise. I have wanted motivation to become healthier, loose weight, pump energy into my tired body. Obviously the motivations haven't been there as I get a bowl of ice cream and sedate myself in front of another episode of Law and Order.

Then I my cousin posted a simple Youtube video on her blog.

We can never predict when something we see, hear, or experience is going to effect us in such a way that sparks a flame and then becomes life changing. We see and hear so much in our world. If there is an earthquake on the other side of the world from us, we have news reports immediately flooding into our homes. We are touched, move to action. We want to help. Sometimes the knowledge of the tragedy of another touches us to our core, and changes us forever.

Today I went to the gym. I weighed myself. Funny, I need to loose the exact number of pounds that I am old. I turn 44 in three days, you can figure out how much weight I should loose to be considered healthy. I chose a treadmill that faced a panoramic window looking out at the snow dusted mountains with the sunrise just coming over the crest. I had my motivating, move yourself music plugged into me ears. And I started to walk. Then I walked a little fasted. I actually jogged a few times in between my brisk walking pace. I looked out at those mountains and thought that miles beyond those peaks was Congo. I walked faster, jogged a little more frequently.

A beautiful thing happened today. I traveled a 5K distance on that treadmill this morning. I am running for Congo.