Nine years ago, my mother gave me one of my favorite birthday gifts: my yellow lab, Casey.
Every day I walk Casey and I always walk listening to music. In 2001, I listened to the radio while I walked and the songs were random and I had no control over them.
In 2002, I got an iPod. I started creating playlists, but unlike my children who are very sophisticated with their music organization, I just started with a playlist called “My Favorites” and followed with “My Favorites 2”. I now have 27 playlists. I chose and choose songs for their beat and sound, but most importantly, I choose them for their lyrics.
Today, I was bored walking to “My Favorites 27” and I went all the way back to the first playlist and kept listening. It was amazing. It was like reading my autobiography. Every song not only had meaning and reminded me of a time during the last eight years, but the images were incredibly vivid. It was if I was living the ups and downs of every year by listening to those songs. I could feel every emotion I felt at that particular time.
Since I am not very clever with the organization of the playlists, they were just in chronological order.
I was able to hear the last eight years and feel all the joys, pain, anger, and love that I have felt over almost a decade. In 2002, I also had started taking annual trips by myself and I would always choose one song before I left to be the "vision" song for my journey. So, of course, those songs were there too and I could remember every sight, taste, and smell of those trips just by listening to the "vision" song for that year.
WOW! It was so cool! It reminded me of how full life is and of how many experiences we really live in a year, or even eight.
It also gave me a picture of how I have grown, where I have been, and maybe even where I am going.
Thanks, Steve Jobs, you gave me a gift I didn’t even know was there.
Happy Hanukah!
Denise
