Ah, music

I'll tell you what's a free form of entertainment: letting music transport you back to a time in your life.  Now of course, you must have two things: 1. a time in your life upon which you think fondly (nice grammar, huh?) and 2. a song that reminds you of that time.

This morning, I put Ben Harper's "Welcome to the Cruel World" disc into my car cd player and listened to track number one, an instrumental called The three of us.  Instantly I was transported.

When I was in the Peace Corps in Estonia, this was one of the cds I brought with me.  When I took the ferry boat from my little island of Saaremaa to the mainland to visit friends or go to the capital to the Peace Corps office, I would go to the deck of the boat (if the weather allowed), smoke a cigarette (yeah, I used to smoke) and listen to The three of us on my headphones. 

Listening to that song this morning, probably for the first time hearing it closely since that time,  I could have closed my eyes (Don't worry..I didn't. I was driving!) and been right back on the deck of the ferry boat, smelling the salty wind off the Baltic Sea.  I would stand there and look at the approaching mainland, full of anticipation to be with friends again after the solitude of being a Peace Corps volunteer on an island, in a city of 16,000--the only American.  I loved my host family and my coworkers but at my site I could go days without speaking a word of English and even a whole day without speaking to anyone. 

During my service, I felt the lowest, loneliest lows I hav ever felt in my life, but I also felt some of the most achingly full, joyful highs as well.  And on that boat, with Ben Harper's gorgeous guitar in my ears, cool, fresh wind in my face, knowing I was on my way to companionship and laughter and some of the the truest friends I'd ever known, It felt like my heart would explode from my chest in joy.  I didn't know then, but I was as free as I'd ever been, as an individual, just figuring herself out, just starting her journey.   

It's lovely to think of it now. To think of the twenty five year old me then and the ten years later me now and know how much a part of me that still is. And to remember how music can fill an empty moment with just the touch of a button. 

Happy Friday everyone... get out there and FEEL, no matter what it is you're feeling. Happy or sad, angry or elated, you are ALIVE and that is incredible.