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Day 64: The Song Remembers When

I'm working through 40 Bags in 40 Days via the KonMari method. Marie Kondo might not be too happy with my progress, but I feel pretty great about it. So far, I'm only down to CDs.

I know, I'm totally a child of the '90s, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I love CDs. I've loved them since I received my first two for Christmas in 1993. They were Little Texas' Big Time and Janet Jackson's Janet if you must know. Sadly, I just realized I currently own neither. Pouty lip. I guess I have gotten rid of some over the years!

Before. No, I did not toss those cassettes. So what. 

My husband is also a lover of music and a keeper of CDs. We store our CDs in a mission-style cabinet my parents bought us shortly after we were married. Our big speaker stereo broke a couple of years back and we never replaced it. The only working CD player in our house is the boys' bedroom clock, and only one of our vehicles has a CD player. Needless to say, our albums don't get much play these days, unless I randomly grab a few to play in the van.

A couple of days ago, I opened the cabinet, intent on purging a good number of them. The first time through I pulled out four, two of which were duplicates. I tried again the next day and maybe pulled out five or six. Why can't I get rid of these? More than a few I haven't pulled out in years!

After some pondering, I realized that if we can fit all of our CDs in their home, we shouldn't have a problem keeping them. Hesitantly, I  mentioned it to my spouse. He had been independently thinking of purging a few and agreed that if we want them and can fit them all in the cabinet, we can happily keep them. He has yet to go through his portion, but today I was able to fit even our (ok, his) massive Bob Dylan collection in there, so I'm really happy about it.

For reasons unknown to me, my two older boys love Trisha Yearwood's song "The Wrong Side of Memphis" a whole lot. Seeing little boys cheerfully singing and dancing to Trisha Yearwood could soften the hardest of hearts! Today I grabbed Songbook  from the cabinet to listen to in the van. The second track is "The Song Remembers When" which I love so much!

Around three lines into the song, I realized why I can't get rid of my CDs: It was like a lighted match had been tossed into my soul; it was like a dam had broken in my heart. These albums are the soundtrack to my life! Hearing the songs and artists brings me back to times and places I think I've forgotten about. It connects me to people I no longer see, and might never see again. The albums remind me of fabulous live shows and good times. For so many memories of mine, the three minutes of the song is just enough, all I need to smile or shed a tear and then move on Sometimes it's just looking at the album cover, seeing an autograph or scanning song lyrics.  Even if the whole world has forgotten, the song remembers when. 

We have 10 shelves in the cabinet and about four-and-a-half of them are full of our non-negotiables, our most very favoritest favorite artists. These include Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes (including individual records by Chris and Rich Robinson and Marc Ford), Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett and Ryan Bingham. The legends shelf (which I just named) includes the likes of Aerosmith, the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Carole King, Tom Petty, Leon Russell, Bruce Springsteen, and Warren Zevon. Four more shelves are organized by genre, most of the rock and roll are his and most of the country and pop are mine. The Christmas shelf is all mine! I love the way they are organized and looking through them makes me happy.

How often do I listen to Veruca Salt's Eight Arms to Hold You? Almost never. Does it spark joy? Totes. I can't look at that thing with out smiling and remembering an old friend, Becky, whom I will likely never see again.

I could probably share a story about a solid third of those albums, but I'll spare you. (You're welcome.)

We have vowwed to get a working CD player to sit atop the cabinet in our new house, and to actually spin some of these old things. Perhaps after one play, we'll be able to purge a few more. One more listen may be all we need. But for now, I'm pleased that they all fit in their home and that they make us happy!



And for today's recommended podcast, I share with you Fr. Mike Schmitz's homily from last weekend. Check it out here, or find it on iTunes as UMD Newman. He's a great priest from the University of Minnesota Duluth. His homily podcasts is worth subscribing to. This particular one includes a wonderful wedding story at the beginning, but the whole things is terrific. Listen!

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