Currently Listening: The Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, performed by the London Symphony.

I downloaded it from iTunes today. Every week they offer a couple free songs and this was one of them. I LOVE THIS SONG. I remember singing it in choir in high school (maybe middle school, I can’t remember). So you can imagine how much fun it is for me to sing along here at work

I love how music brings back good memories. Actually, most of the time it doesn’t bring back the details of the memory but it brings back the feeling of the memory. I wish I could recall details better, but I’ll settle for the good feelings.

Anything from R.E.M.’s “Automatic For The People” brings back memories of high school. That album helped me through all my days of depression, and there were many of them. I still like to listen to it sometimes because it makes me thankful that I’m not the emotional mess I used to be. “Everybody Hurts” just doesn’t pull at my heartstrings the way it used to. I can listen to it without crying and I count that as progress.

Tool’s “46 and 2” reminds me of when Mike and I first became friends. Not because it means something to me, but because it meant something to him at the time. Let’s just say it contained a kind of metaphor for the Holy Spirit. ”Tool?” you say? I know. God works in the most mysterious places. Even 10 years later the song still gives me chills.

Lionel Richie’s “Sail On” brings back a really fuzzy memory of riding in the back of Coach Trujillo’s car. Coach Trujillo was the high school wrestling coach. My dad was coaching wrestling as well, so we were friends with the Trujillo’s. I don’t know who else was in the car, what kind of car it was, or where we were going. I just remember hearing a lot of Lionel Richie around that time period.

Rita Springer’s “Worth It All” helped me through some trying times with infertility. I was longing to be a mother. The desire was planted in me at age 12. Here I was at 28 waiting for a child that I wasn’t sure would ever come. This song spoke to me:

I don’t understand Your ways
Oh but I will give You my song
Give You all of my praise

When I finally did get pregnant after seven long years, I had severe morning sickness and I threw up all day long for weeks. The only food I could keep down was vanilla ice cream and popcorn. This song spoke to me in a different way:

Now around every corner
And up every mountain
I’m not looking for crowns
Or the water from fountains
I’m desperate in seeking, frantic believing
That the sight of Your face
Is all that I need

I know “the sight of Your face is all I need” is referring to God but when I heard it during my pregnancy it helped me to remember the little one growing inside me. It gave me hope that all the waiting and the sickness would be worth it. So that song is my ”God” song and my “Luke” song.  It’s my “God gave me Luke” song.

What songs carry special memories for you?