Tag Archives: playlist

Love Songs: A 15th Anniversary Play List

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I happen to share my birthday week with my anniversary week. It honestly makes for streamlining celebrations. Today I celebrate 15 of the most wonderful, amazing years of my life with my husband.

We perfectly balance each other’s personality traits; my rambunctious, outgoing type-A is settled by his quiet, contemplative type-B (or is it C–boy is he a shy, introverted type). We bicker like it’s a competitive sport and always (ok, well almost always) make up before the day is over. Yet, we have similar senses of humor, common interests in sports and pop-culture, and shared political leanings.

Beyond the ‘we’ though, there is the ‘he’. As cliche as it sounds, he has been my rock (I could not have gotten through medical school, surgical training, and bringing two children into this world without his support and multiple sacrifices) and is my true soul mate (I felt at ease with him the moment that we met, as if we had known each other in a past life). He has truly brought out the best in me. I am honestly getting emotional writing this (as I do every time I write him an anniversary, birthday, or father’s day card) because I shudder to think about the kind of person I would be today if he had never entered my life.

Many songs also remind me how lucky I have been that he gave me chance and thus changed my life.  Today I wanted to share a few them and thank him. One song for each year of our marriage so far.

(NB: yes, I apply my own personal interpretation to some of these songs, so what–for whatever reason they remind me how enriched my life is with my partner)

 

1) The Rose (Bette Midler) “Far beneath the bitter snows. Lies the seed that with the sun’s love. In the spring becomes the rose.” Thank-you for helping me bloom. 

2) I Will Not Take These Things for Granted (TTWS) “You offer reassurance….you offer warm asylum….you offers visions dancing” and “I will not take these things for granted.” Thank-you for everything that you do; I may not always say it but I promise you I don’t take it for granted how lucky I am.

3) You Picked Me (A Fine Frenzy) “I was difficult to reach. But you picked me.” Thank-you for persisting 19 years ago when all signals told you to get lost. So glad you picked me to pursue.

4) Concrete Sky (Beth Orton) “Save my soul… I feel like I’m falling” Thank-you for picking me up when I have been down, for giving me the strength to tackle obstacles that felt too formidable to go it alone.

5) I Choose You (Sara Bareilles) “I could live by the light in your eyes.” “We are not perfect. We’ll learn from our mistakes.” Thank-you for forgiving me my mistakes and admitting yours. (And also, for those blue eyes!)

6) Lovesong (Adele) “Whenever I’m alone with you. You make me feel like I am home again.” Thank-you for always making me feel safe and unconditionally loved. I am home with you no matter where we are.

7) It’s Friday, I’m in Love (The Cure) “To see you in the middle of the night. You can never get enough. Enough of this stuff. It’s Friday. I’m in love” Thank-you for not complaining about how many Fridays I left you all alone so I could do my job (and Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Weekends, and Holidays as well.)

8) Unison (Bjork) “Domestically. I can obey all of your rules. And still be, be” Thank-you for living up to my often unrealistic expectations about how neat, tidy, and well-organized our home should be.

9) I Won’t Give Up (Jason Mraz) “For us to work we didn’t break, we didn’t burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in.” Thank-you for your willingness to change your ways and grow with me as I also learn to change mine.

10) All of Me (John Legend) “[I] Love your curves and all your edges. All your perfect imperfections.” Thank-you for reminding me to love myself and unload so much lingering self-esteem baggage. You’d think that by age 40 I could embrace all of me as much as you can but I still need your reminders.

11) The Nearness of You (Norah Jones) “It’s just the nearness of you” Thank-you for just being there whenever I ask, even if it means subjecting yourself to another shopping trip or boring work event with complete strangers who give never-ending speeches.

12) Goodnight and Go (Imogen Heap) “It’s impossible to ignore you. Must you make me laugh so much.” Thank-you for making me laugh so very much. I look forward to saying goodnight to you for every night the rest of my life in person or from afar.

13) In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel) “In your eyes. I am complete.” Thank-you for thinking the best of me despite my weaknesses and flaws. Your rose colored view is often needed.

14) Something in the Way She Moves (James Taylor) “And if I’m feeling down and blue or troubled by some foolish game. She always seems to make me change my mind.” Thank-you for allowing me to cheer you up on the days you would rather be sulking.

15) Who You Love (John Mayer) “Oh, you can’t make yourself stop dreaming
Who you’re dreaming of. If it’s who you love.” Thank-you for sticking with me even when it seemed that no one else who loved me would ever accept you. 

Thanks for a great 15 years babe. We don’t listen to enough music. And, of course that is because these songs just make me sob hysterical tears of love-filled joy.

 

 

Top 10 Hits to Tackle 10 Miles

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I ran 10 miles yesterday and it felt great. I could not have done it without musical accompaniment and I wanted to take a minute to thank my lyrical running coaches.

Mile #1) I would like to thank the Beastie Boys for encouraging me to get my Body Movin’ and teaching me it’s “not about perfection.”

Mile #2) I would like to thank Carly Rae Jepson who made me run faster as I contemplated “Would he [the elusive college hottie] have been more likely to Call Me Maybe if I had just taken on running 20 years ago?”

Mile #3) I would like to thank Justin Timberlake for telling me to get over the past because with this run, I would be “burning up” and Bringing Sexyback.

Mile #4) I would like to thank Jason Derulo who powered me over the hills so that someday my booty also “won’t need no splaining.”

Mile #5) I would like to thank Will.I.Am (sorry can’t bring myself to thank Beebs) for helping me find #thatPOWER to get to the other half of this run because “whatever doesn’t kill ya, makes ya stronger.”

Mile #6) I would like to thank Pitbull because, once I made it to the second half of the run, he made sure I kept “running through the world” and make sure Don’t Stop the Party.

Mile #7) I would like to thank Austin Mahone since, well…you know… who doesn’t want to just think Mmm Yeah as they hit the otherwise nondescript Mile 7. That’s really “all that I can say” about this.

Mile #8) I would like to thank Britney Spears who said it was okay Scream and Shout as the fatigue really set in through the center of town even though “all eyes [were] on us” where Main St. meets Center St.

Mile #9) I would like to thank Demi Lovato for shining upon me the Neon Lights to get me through the last stretch of the run by “pretend[ing] we’re running out of time.”

Mile #10) I would like to thank Prince for helping me revel in how Sexy…..(yeah, this is a family blog so I can’t go there–also reason why no title listed for mile #4–but trust me it helped me crank that last mile)

And, of course, before you ask these lyrical coaches were speaking to me through my yurbuds–there’s nothing better to run in if you want to be motivated by music to crush those 10 miles.

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