Soundtrack

Music has a powerful ability to touch our hearts and our souls.  This is the music that has inspired me and makes the soundtrack of my life and how it connects with me.

You will need to stop the side bar player before using the play buttons in the list below. Songs are listed in the reverse order they were added, most recent additions appear at the top.

 

One of the hardest things about liver disease is that if affects so many aspects of your body and even your mind.  There are times when I wish I could somehow just escape for a short while and leave it all behind an enjoy some quite solitude.  This song feels like that “Sweet Escape” so I close my eyes and picture myself walking along a stormy Oregon beach holding my wife’s hand with no other care in the word but us and the breaking waves.

 

This song was written about a man who is waiting for news as his wife endures complications from childbirth.  As I listen to it now, in light of my pending transplant I realize that its meaning is far more universal.  It is a powerful evocation of what I know my lovely wife feels in the face of our  unknown and the helplessness she feels.  At times we all face challenges that are out of our control and must just wait and have faith in the outcome.

 

We need to look past the exterior and love people for their hearts.  We all carry the scares of life and none of us are perfect but we can all have a perfect heart.

 

Heaven’s greatest gift is that of the comforting embrace of the Savior.  When we struggle alone we feel the most complete sorrow, emptiness and loneliness but as we welcome the Savior into our lives we feel his comfort and “the morning breaks the night and turns a world of heart felt sorrow into light.” I posted about this song on September 28th and September 29th.

 

People often look at those who have or are enduring great trials and question how they can keep their faith.  How can they have faith in God when he seems to have forgotten them.  This song explains that if we have true faith in the Savior we are willing to take on all life’s challenges to demonstrate that faith.

 

Our life is filled with an assortment of chapters of experiences.  We must appreciate each of them as they come, good or bad.  Each has its place and its purpose.

 

We have two choices in life to look for the negative or to see the positive in all things.  We can make the choice “to sit it out or dance.” I have a related post on September 15th.

 

When faced with life’s challenges it is easy to lose hope and forget about our dreams.  Become consumed by depression and self-pity.  Life feels as cold and barren as the bleak days of winter, but we must lean on those around us to help us see the spring on the horizon, “the promise of the future and blessings of today.”

 

My faith has taught me that his sojourn in life is but one step on an eternal path.  I had a life before I came here and have a purpose, to face the challenges and battles of right and wrong here in mortality.  Someday “I will [go] back when [they] call me.”

 

Viva la vida translates as live life, but viva is more than just live it is with vigor and enthusiasm.  The song tells of a man who has fallen from the heights of glory and power to one of humble servitude.  This reminds me that no matter what life brings we must find the strength to live with vigor “Viva la Vida.”

 

In a world torn apart by war and strife we so often over look the real victims, the children who have there youth and innocence denied.  This reminds me of how lucky I am despite my infirmities to not face the challenges faced by so many children across the globe today.

 

We all like to feel like we are in control of our life and its its direction but has I have been recently reminded this is not always the case.  So I face “Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs [me] by the wrist, directs [me] where to go.  So [I] make the best of this test, and don’t ask why, It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time, It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.”

 

These days I do a lot of retrospection and pondering what I had planned for the future and what I have accomplished.  My life has really been very full, while I do still have dreams I have no regrets.  This song eloquently tells that story of retrospection and satisfaction.

 

When faced with a chronic or terminal illness the world feels like it has an agenda against you specifically.  This song reminds me that life has it trials for everyone as it has before me and will continue after me.

 

We all feel lost at times and this song speaks of the the faith required to put our faith in the lord and trust him rather than our own knowledge.  I wrote and entire post on this song on June 20th.

 

Driving back from Madison with my son, he was playing his IPod I heard this song.  While maybe not my first choice in music styles it did get me thinking.  “Your life is a flashback, A question, a photograph, A statement, a story, a struggle, A chance to laugh.  Cuz if you don’t laugh you cry, A last crescendo when you die, So hit the rewind and listen, It’s the playback, The soundtrack to your life.”  Music has always been an emotional support so I decided to share “The soundtrack to my life” as part of my blog.