Music

Have I ever told you (whoever "you" are) how much I love music?  I have always loved it.  I spent much of my childhood singing into a vacuum handle, a hairbrush, a spoon, anything.  I didn't always need a mic, but I did a lot of singing along to the radio, tapes, and cd's.  I remember the first cd our family had.  Amy Grant: Heart in Motion.  I sang along to that cd probably a million times.  My brothers hated this obsession I had with singing.  Especially R.Jay.  He would tell me all the time to stop singing.  I understand now.  I have completely come to terms with the fact that I don't have a great singing voice.  The good part is that it doesn't keep me from singing.  I just enjoy it too much.  My love of music continued through adolescence.  I sang in choirs, played flute in middle school band, and I frequented Napster.  There was a period of time recently that I didn't listen to music much at all.  I noticed the change and thought about it enough to realize why I had all but stopped enjoying music.  It was a difficult time in my life, and music became noise more than something to enjoy.  Sad.  Lately, though, I feel like music is an addiction.  The radio is on all day at work, and I sing along when it's appropriate to (and probably sometimes when it's not).  I always have a cd or the radio on in my car, and my various music players at home get their fair share of use, too.  I have been seeking out and very much enjoying new music.  It is exciting, until it gets overwhelming.  There is so much great music out there!  I have heard old songs in a new way recently, too.  Some I just never really listened to before, and some just "speak" to me more than they did in the past.  I just love the way a song can really make you feel something.  I love that there are people out there that share their gift of putting emotions and thoughts into words and then putting those words to music that completes those thoughts.  Of course there are some not so great writers out there, but the great ones I sometimes just want to thank for helping me to release my (and feel new) emotions through something I love: music.