I didn’t pay much attention to the game, but I sure loved playing to get the fans going and doing the half time show.

Even today when I hear “My Girl” I always think about the “Rude Tubas” at Delta State doing their own arrangement during the football games. Hearing about homecoming reminds me of standing on the field at Marengo Academy playing the theme from Ice Castles while the homecoming court passed between us. We did that song every year.

On a different level, the sound of Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” from The Planets always catches my ear because a hymn based on that tune was sung as I walked down the aisle to marry my wonderful husband. Even as I write this, the music is filling my mind and bringing me back–not just to my wedding, but my whole marriage.

I wrote an article for a Christmas themed ebook that is coming out soon. It is titled “Getting Personal with Your Christmas Music”. In the article I wrote “We all know that music can tell a story, but music also has a story.”

At the time I was thinking about what went behind the creation of the music– particularly Christmas music–that is so special to us. I thought about songs I knew and the history of the composer or writer, the circumstances that inspired them to write and the ways music has affected culture .

As I’ve pondered it for a while I’m reminded that the story in music is living. It’s not just the creator’s story or a tale of history. Its story is being rewritten by the listener and added to their own story. Their stories go one inspire the stories of others.

Music from every part of our lives act as markers to bring us back to a something that is beyond the intellectual self. It goes to the root of our soul. I think that’s why there are so many controversies around music. It is amazing the life that music has on every level of who we are–mind, body, and soul.  It’s amazing how much we miss of that reality everyday.

Deborah