Music & Memories
If you were to ask me what rhythm I was most excited to share with you all, it’s music. It’s one that I don’t think I go a day with out. In the darkest of nights, lying face on my floor or dancing around my kitchen with a spoon mic in hand; you can be sure a speaker is playing the melodies that my heart is singing in any particular moment. Music has always been there for me. It has a way of bringing us together, comforting us in the very moment we need it, speaking the words that we can’t find ourselves, and taking us back in time to certain moments or memories.
Psychologist call this phenomena a “reminiscence bump.” The idea that a very song can evoke a memory and take us traveling back in time. How a line in a song or a string of notes can have autobiographical memories seems almost silly; but if I were to name a song title or spout off a lyric I can just about guess that you can think of the first time you heard it, the way it made you feel, or any other memory that goes along with it. Alyssa and I often joke about the good ole’ days when mix tapes and burnt cd’s were what you did on any given school night to take to a friend the next day. Swapping CD’s with the coolest of designs on top was a love language amongst friends, and there are still some songs today that every time I hear them, I can remember the exact burnt cd as I rubbed it with my t-shirt before sliding it into the car’s stereo and rolling down the window on some Alabama back road. Sounds like some country song, I know, but twas’ the life of a little Alabama farm girl.
I remember the song that was playing on the radio when I had my first wreck and the exact part of the chorus that shut off when the airbags deployed and my ears began ringing. I remember getting Pepsi’s and sunflower seeds with my Dad in his white pick up, and how every time I hear “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by AC/DC, my mind goes flooding back and I’m that little girl again in the passenger seat without a care in the world and also not really knowing what the lyrics to the song I was singing meant. I will always be that high school color guard girl dressed in lime green sequins with my pompoms in the stands every time I hear “Sweet Caroline” (we all know you just sang bum bum bum in your head right after you read that title too). When I hear “Holy Holy Holy” I go back to that ochre colored church pew sitting four rows from the back and the smell of the old hymnals, as my grandmother played the piano and we all sang in unison on any given Sunday. Or how about the way that every time I hear the song “So Will I” by Hillsong, I can hear the wind blowing through the mango trees and I can smell the air as I used to sit at the picnic table for church on Sunday’s when living in Nicaragua. A personal favorite is the song “My Life is in Your Hands” by Kirk Franklin. I laugh every single time I hear this song, as I am transported back to my mom’s navy blue minivan in the back seat with my best friend making up interpretive dances using moves from Napoleon dynamite. Clearly I was a very cool kid thinking back on all these memories, but I digress.
I could go on for days about all the reminiscence bumps I have had. It’s like a whisper from my younger self. I believe that is part of why I have always been so fond of music. It ties me to my memories—my history. It teaches me to look back with fondness and to takes steps forward with courage. It speaks words that sometimes my heart can’t find itself to say, it silences the noise around me, and on most days it’s what connects me to my Creator.
My music rhythms tend to change with the seasons. The genres, the tempos, and the artists are ever changing; but one thing I can always guarantee is that if you are around me for long enough, music will be playing and a reminiscence bump is not far behind. What’s the song that gives you a reminiscence bump? Where were you and what were you feeling in that moment?
