Sunny Song Sunday

I love music. My appreciation for music is beyond that of visual art and it touches me in a way  I can't describe. I've always said that there are two kinds of people: First, there are people who love music. They enjoy it, they like to listen to it, music is a lovely was to pass the time. I'd imagine these people make up 95% of the population. Then there are people who feel music. A song can change their day but it can also change their life. The lyrics to a song and reach through their belly button and rip out their guts. To them music is inspiration, music is life, music is everything. I fall in the later category. I love artists that wear their hearts on their sleeve. Who bear their souls in hopes that they can connect with another and that their experiences can help someone else on this crazy journey.

Ma Rainey once said:

 They hear [music] come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.

Music is a way of understanding life. On Sundays I'm going to post some songs from my life "mixed-tape" that will hopefully inspire you the way they've inspired me.

1. Our Hearts - Firehorse

"Our hearts weren't big enough, for all the hope we had. Our hearts were on fire."

2. Love Love Love - Avalanche City
"Girl, I say, if only life would lean our way,
Well, you and me, we'd run away to be wherever our adventure awaits"

I was listening to an interview from Christina Perri on the radio a few days ago. She was talking about how she moved to L.A. and was a waitress but she couldn't catch a break. She left her husband and was living in a small apartment with no furniture. She said that she knew she should have left L.A. but in her darkest moment she knew that something had to be right around the corner. Christina said "In your darkest moments you have two options. You can break down or you can break open". I will not break down. I choose to let adversity shape me into someone stronger and kinder, someone with more compassion. I choose to break open.