Throughout my life, music has had a large influence on helping me process what I am experiencing. When mixed tapes were a thing, I would create them to become the soundtrack of the moment in my life. The summer after my mother’s death I drove her car out to my place in BC, which takes ten hours to drive the one way. She had left her car for my 14 year old son, so we needed to store it for him until he turned 16 and was able to obtained his drivers license.
It was 26 years old Toyota Camry, standard transmission, roll down windows and a tape deck. To the joys of my two boys I found the mix tapes I made when I was sixteen and getting over a heart break, in our garage a week before the trip. By the end of the ten hours of listening to my mixed tapes with me, my sons were thinking that they’d do anything to get away from listening to the dramatic rawness of the sixteen year old version of their mother.
To be able to listen to these songs again I was able to see myself from a 29 year later perspective (yup, I was 45 at the time). I appreciated the message that those songs illustrated to me. I was able to see with my soundtracks that I wasn’t trying to heal from a heart break from a teenage boy, it was more than that. It was about finding my own way; my own strength; to feel that someone was listening to me and that I was important to another person.
After mom’s death I had created a playlist to help me through my emotions. It wasn’t as formal as a mixed tape, but it was a list that I continued to play from my phone. Music can be healing, inspirational and can help to ignite our thoughts and emotions. If you were to create a soundtrack to your life what would it be? Would it be something to celebrate? Would it be full of sorrow? Or would it be a mix?
The songs that I played while grieving my mother allowed me to find peace and comfort. Maybe they might be good additions to complement your own life soundtrack. They were:
Mother Mother: It’s Alright Forkingandcountry: God Only Knows Dan + Shay: When I Pray for You Francesca Battistelli: Where Were You Lady Antebellum: Lay Our Flowers Down Justin Hines: Solsbury Hill We Three: Heaven’s Not To Far Away Rascal Flatts: I’m Moving On Shawn Mendes: Life of the Party (acoustic)
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