I ♥ Music (SOTC 65/365)

"Music is what feelings sound like." -- Unknown

Secular Music as Worship, Part III

"I've never been a swimmer,

but I know that I'll never drown."

Still Worshipping Through Secular Music

In a [Facebook note turned] blog post from several years ago, I contemplated the idea of secular music having purpose as worship. Over the years, there have been songs here and there that I have added to my mental collection of "secular worship" music.

Just before Christmas, I heard Phillip Phillips' song "Home" for the first time. Initially, I was taken in by the melody and the vocals (he sounds eerily like Mumford & Sons). But once I listened closely to the lyrics, I was impacted powerfully by the song as one of worship. Not Phillip Phillips--but Jesus--singing His song of protection and care in these lyrics.

Beautiful.

"Hold on to Me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road."

I Grew Up on This Stuff

For my mother's 60th birthday, my brother and I took her to a concert. Last weekend, from the second row (!), we enjoyed the Sounds of Simon & Garfunkel with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at Edmonton's Winspear Centre. Pretty sure the only thing better would have been Simon & Garfunkel themselves; the concert was absolutely lovely. AJ Swearingen and Jonathan Beedle are talented musicians in their own right, and really kept true to the style and era of Simon & Garfunkel.

I think one of the reasons I found this concert so lovely was the familiarity of the music. I grew up on this stuff. Both my parents--especially my dad--enjoyed the Oldies; music of the 60's and 70's filtered through the house (and car) on pretty much a daily basis. Simon & Garfunkel were one of the top five artists whose music I knew well as a child.

For me, there is much comfort in the familiar. When I am in a familiar space, or hear a familiar song, or am with familiar people, I feel coziness, peace, a sense of 'home'. I have been trying to immerse myself in these peace-filled experiences lately, as I intentionally try to nurture my soul.* With the musical harmony filling my ears, and family in the seats next to me, such was the atmosphere I found myself in last night.

Where do you find your cozy peace?



* Yes, I am well aware that novel experiences and moving outside the comfort zone are sometimes the ways in which our soul is nourished and turns towards the face of God; peace can be found there, too. I am also recognizing that is not currently my season.

SOTC 4/365

"Music happens to be an art form that transcends language." -- Herbie Hancock

255/365

Cryptic Triptych?

214/365

"Upside down, and all around, I'll take you where the stars are found..."

204/365

White zinfandel, bubbles, a book, and a soothing soundtrack; perfect end to the weekend.

155/365

Friends, tunes, coffee. We are good to go. :)

113/365

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream..."*

* "...if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream!" :)

112/365

Feist. In concert. :)

Life is a Song OR 108/365

I love music. I come by this naturally--both my parents had musical skill and loved listening to various genres of music. My dad spent a period of time working at a radio station; my mom has been and is currently active in the worship group of her church. In my brother and I, this genetic predisposition translated into self-taught guitar and modest piano skill, respectively; and both of us were in various school choirs.

I grew up listening to music in the car, in the shower, doing chores, doing homework, and to wake me up in the morning. As an adult, this love of music has not faded. Here is the typical soundtrack of my day:

Waking up:


On the drive to work (a la CBC Radio 2 Morning):


Throughout my work day:


and:


and:


Driving home:


Making supper:


Winding down the evening:


My iTunes collection is one of the major reasons I'm running out of space on my laptop.

And sure, I could go into all the ways that music enhances brain function, the powerful impact of a song's lyrics in conjunction with its melody, the universal way that music influences people. But that's way more of an intellectual post than I'm going for. I know that the brain response, lyrical content, and genres of music I prefer are major factors as to why I love music and listen to it so much. But today I don't need to know any more than that.

I just need to decide which song I want next.

42/365

Ridin' in the van, sharin' the tunes. Good times, good times. No, wait--the best times. :)

Don't Mess With My Music

I love music. While my science-loving, left-sided brain dominates a lot of what I love to do and my overall temperament, there are still artistic, musical, right-brained clusters of neurons that permeate many of my activities. I enjoy having music around for most of my waking hours; in the car, on the computer, as I play with the children I work with... I have quite a bit of fun still making mix CDs for my car. I get so much satisfaction ordering the music in just that perfect way. ...And over time, the music forms associations depending on where it's heard. There are certain songs that will induce in me a strong craving to go camping. Or to drive to Seattle. Or to relive some of my university years.

I have to admit, though--although I love music, I'm not as current in the music scene as you'd think I would be. I don't actually listen to the radio a whole lot, and even less to the most mainstream of stations. The stuff I like, I generally either find by accident (i.e. I hear something on someone else's stereo that I find kind of catchy), or seek out for a specific reason (i.e. a friend recommended it, or it's from Grey's). I only really know a handful of artists across musical genres.

Regardless, I love music. And because I love music, I love iTunes. Along with Photoshop, it is probably one of the best-loved programs on my laptop--which I also love. I've had my laptop for four years, and while I'm not on the newest-of-the-new operating systems, my XP is not entirely obsolete, and my laptop holds up well. But occasionally it has issues shutting down. So when it was doing that the other day, I manually forced it to shut down with the power button. Which I've done several times before in moments of impatience, without consequence. Not so much the other day.

The next time I started my computer after that, I noticed my internet settings had been reset. Fair enough. Whatever, I thought. Then I opened up my iTunes. It, too, had been reset. My over-1200 songs and nine customized playlists were gone. "Oh, crap." My brain started racing. The music can't be GONE-gone, I thought. I forced myself to think, enlisting Google to help remind me of technological details I was having trouble remembering in-the-moment as my brain was trying to solve the issue and keep from freaking out at the same time. The iTunes folder. Right! It's where iTunes automatically organizes song files when imported or downloaded from the iTunes store. Most of my music was there. The rest was in My Music folder. It took over an hour, but eventually, I had virtually all my music back in my iTunes library. I even put music back into the simpler of my customized playlists. It was midnight by this time, however, and I made it part of the plan to deal with the more complex of playlists the next day. I went to bed with a sense of satisfaction at how resourceful I'd been in solving the issue.

My mom (who stayed with me the past few days) went on the computer early in the morning when she was up, however, and it asked her about a "disk cleanup". It must have done a heavy duty clean up, cuz when I went into my programs, the internet and iTunes had been reset again! I was not impressed. I called Tech Support at Apple to see if I should just uninstall and reinstall iTunes at this point (yes), and got e-mailed details to uninstall all of iTunes' various components in proper order. I ran another disk clean-up. Then I de-fragged the C:\ drive outright. Then I uninstalled iTunes and its friends (QuickTime, etc.). I emptied the recycle bin for good measure. And finally, downloaded and reinstalled iTunes.

I added ONE song into my music library. Then I shut down the computer and started it up again. I wasn't about to go through the process of re-loading over 1200 songs again until I knew that there were no more issues. Upon restart, the one song was still there (and my internet started where it was supposed to start). Halle-ja-loo-yah!

So for a second time, I re-loaded all 1200 songs (distributed across 4-5 main folders). And we are now good. I still have a playlist that needs to be ordered properly, and my larger playlists may not have all the songs that they originally had (I can only cross-reference so much with what's on my iPod, cuz I haven't up-synced the iPod in a while). But I'm pretty much there.

I love my music. Most of the music in my iTunes is on CD, many of which live in my car. But aside from the hassle it would have been to have to reload that way, it's nice to have all my music in one location to just listen to whatever I want, however I want, with one click.

I worked hard to build a library of music I love... don't take that away from me!

Christmas Reflection

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who is Emmanuel--God with us. God came down in human form so that He could have an active relationship with His children--us. The wonder and mystery surrounding this moves me on and off throughout the year, but especially at Christmas.

"Every religion in the world is about man trying to reach up to God, like working your way up the ladder. They’re all about striving to achieve something for yourself. Christianity is the only religion about God reaching down to man and offering salvation as a free gift, with the added bonus of a personal relationship with the Creator God through Jesus Christ, who was there in the beginning." -- Francine Rivers

"Life takes a little bit of time, and a lot of relationship." -- William Paul Young

May your 2010 be rich with relationship and God's blessings and peace. Merry Christmas!

Humming Along

I was just noticing that I haven't blogged in a few weeks. Busy? Yes, but not moreso than normal, really. But I find October/November, like February/March, is a 'blah' kind of time for the most part. There are no major holidays, it's cold and not very pretty-looking outside so I'm not spending much time out there, and there are no other exciting transitions or events during this time worth writing about, it seems. I think my most productive times of fun activity, picture-taking, and inspirational thinking come in the summer. With the winter comes hibernation.

I am actually in quasi-hibernation mode right now. I've been kind of thrown off by setting the clocks back, and am spending more time doing calm, evening things and then realizing it's only 6:30, and I have four hours of evening still to play with. On the plus side, my evenings have been relatively low-key; nice and relaxing.

Despite the brief introduction to winter with snow and cold at the beginning of October, November's temps have been relatively decent--anywhere from 5-15C (41-60F)--so I have been trying to enjoy a walk here and there, and taking kids that I work with outside whenever possible. And because the light is getting so low in the sky, the atmosphere is one of peace and tranquility most of the time.

So overall I've been finding that I am engaging in the regular daily activities, but I'm coming at them with definitely more of an autumn/winter pace rather than the excitement and gusto that I go at things in the summer time.

It's not all bad. Taking things slower is a good skill to have. I am finding, though, that I need to give myself more of a kickstart for the times that I NEED to go at something with gusto and excitement. In the car, for the most part, I have traded my Summer Fun Mix CD for my Grey's Anatomy self-made compilations--for those who don't watch the show, their choice of music is [fantastic, but] generally more... indie? 'Dark and twisty'? Less mainstream? ...Hmm, I am really at a lack of descriptors this evening. Well, their music is kinda like this:



or like this:



It's great music, but certainly not get-ready-for-fun type music! So every now and then I need to pop in that summer CD to rev myself up a bit. Once the snow falls, there will be activity to do (read: snowshoeing). And as we get closer to December, we start in on Christmas, New Year's, and Birthday fun. Without all that, it would be a long ride through the winter, that's for sure.

Christmas is Coming!

I realized I haven't posted in quite a while; December gets that way, hey? I'm actually trying to alter my daily schedule to have less jam-packed days. Build back a margin. I've been trying--today was Day 5--to get up half an hour earlier than normal. Usually, I wake up at 7, so I figured 6:30 wasn't that far of a stretch. And then I'm using that extra time in the morning to do some of the puttering that I usually dread doing once I come home from work (emptying the dishwasher, tidying up counters/tables, cleaning the litter box, etc.). Tasks that don't require a lot of cognitive effort (because it IS early morning, after all). This way, they don't build up and build up and leave my place looking like a disaster zone by the weekend. And it allows me to have more time to do everything else that has to happen after work (errands, respite, flier route, etc.), as well as more time to do the enjoyable after-work activities (reading, TV, computer, etc.).

This is only the first week, but it's working pretty well. Thursday I slept 'till 7, but only cuz I'd been out a bit later the night before. In addition to waking up early, I am trying to go to bed a little earlier, too. You may think that I'm not really gaining any time that way, but regardless of when I get up in the morning (except when I sleep in on weekends), I generally don't engage in productive activity after 10pm. But when I was waking up at 7, I wasn' t tired enough for sleep till around 11. So 10-11pm was completely unproductive awake time. Now it's usually lights out by 10:15, but from 9-10, I'm still awake enough to be doing things. So that last hour of my day is now more productive than before.

Overall, I have felt less pressed for time, and that's a good feeling. Most of my morning 'puttering' has been in the kitchen. My bedroom still looks a bit disastrous. But I don't feel like I can vacuum at 7am and have happy neighbours below me. After all, right below my bedroom is someone else's bedroom.

I think it will be easier to get up at 6:30 once the sun starts rising earlier. Sunrise time today was 8:43am (and it's not even the shortest day of the year yet; creike). And this last week, we haven't really had sunny sunrises, cuz it's been cloudy (a couple weeks ago there was such a brilliant sunrise front-lighting the downtown skyline that I briefly wished I was a professional photographer and not simply an amateur constrained by the need to get to my real work on time--but that's a whole other story). So it's completely dark when I get up, get ready, leave for work and arrive at work. So completely opposite from July when there's often a faint hint of daylight still left when I go to bed!

December Dark is nicer than November Dark, though. Christmas lights, candles, and finally some snow to pretty up the ground! (I don't mind snow, it's the bitter cold I can't stand). In my dark drives to work in the morning (or in my daylight lunch-time driving, or my quazi-dark drive home), I listen to Shine FM, which is playing all Christmas music right now. A couple weeks ago for the first time, I heard what has become my newest favourite Christmas song. I have also posted this on Facebook, but feel free to check it out again:



Beautiful!

Any Song is Worship?

So, I was loading up my iPod with songs for a bike ride this afternoon, and I was trying to decide if I felt like Christian music or secular (I went with secular in the end, but that's beside the point). As I was pondering this, I remembered something interesting from high school.

In my high school, we had a lunch-hour youth group kind of thing. I only participated when I was in grade ten, and I only remember two of the get-togethers. One was ice blocking (also beside the point), and the other was listening to secular music from a Christian perspective.

I remember we listened to "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, which talks about a guy who's pretty much stalking his ex. Except we were told to listen to it as if it was God speaking to US, and I remember thinking that was kind of cool (feel free to check out the lyrics).

So that memory went through my mind this afternoon as I was choosing between Christian and secular, and starting to wonder if it really mattered.

Now clearly, there are songs out there that can't be viewed from any sort of Christian perspective; and I'm not simply talking about garbage types of songs. There are just some that tell a very specific story and can't be viewed from another perspective... like the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," for instance.

But that still leaves a lot of other songs. In fact, Stephen Curtis Chapman took the one-hit wonder 500 Miles and turned it into a praise song (although he replaced the line "when I get drunk..." with different lyrics).

I think there are so many songs that could be re-framed. That could shift your perspective on your mid-day drive while you are stuck in traffic. That could offer up a new form of praise. That could alter your presumptions about what love really looks like.