Thankful Thursday #4: music & more

I've decided I'm going to shake up the Gratitude Challenge - sometimes I'll follow the prompts, sometimes I won't. Sometimes prompts can be so constricting.

This week I've been especially thankful for:

-a husband who is very handy and can fix things (even when I did something stupid that made them break to begin with)

-friends who can laugh off my embarrassing moments better than I can

-Spotify. Yes, I'm a little late to jump on that bandwagon since I have been a loyal Pandora listener, but I love getting to create playlists and listen to them repeatedly. Nothing says "Good morning!" like some good coffee and good tunes. This one's been on repeat most of the week.

-Sunrises. Even being able to travel in the daylight again has been delightful as we gain a few minutes of daylight back each day, but this week the colors have been stellar.

-Time to create fun things with the Cricut, like this:

I Can See My Next Playlist Already

Yesterday morning upon awaking: Opened blinds. Turned on Pandora. Made coffee and breakfast while rocking out to the AC/DC station. Starting making a mental list:

Songs That Make It Impossible to Start the Day Off on a Bad Foot:

1) "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC (or anything by AC/DC)

2) "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor

3) "Looking Out My Back Door" by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Or anything by CCR)

4) "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi

5) "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz

6) "Authority Song" by John Mellencamp

6) "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga (Makes me think of my cousins ♥)

7) "Beat It" by Michael Jackson

8) "End of the Line" by The Traveling Wilburys

9) "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel

10) "We Will Rock You" by Queen

11) "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" by Manfred Mann

12) "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey (or the Glee version, depending on the day...)

13) "Fishin' in the Dark" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

14) "Send Me" by Lecrae

15) "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys

16) "A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles (The Aaron and Jason Version always overrides the real words in my head!)

17) "Kerosene" by Miranda Lambert

18) "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers

19) "It's Not My Time" by 3 Doors Down

20) "Light Up the Sky" - The Afters

I'm sure there are many, many more that could be added...but I'll leave it at that for now.

What kind of music gets you going in the morning?

~"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." [-Billy Joel]~

"Out of Chaos..."

This move has an intimidating weight that I am trying to fight from sitting on my shoulders. The excitement is hiding

behind the nerves,

the to do list,

money,

praying for things to come together,

the Unknowns,

and trying to be everywhere for everyone at once before Moving Day.

Enter music that saves my sanity and makes me slow down for a few minutes, that quiets my soul and stills everything.

Yes, this is chaos.

Yes, this is scary.

But yes, this is exciting.

And yes, this is good.

And yes, beautiful things will come from this.

"The Aftermath"

The lyrics are even more beautiful than the music...

"The Aftermath" by Hillsong United

The skies lay low where You are
On the earth You rest Your feet
Yet the hands that cradle the stars
Are the hands that bled for me

[Chorus 1:]
In a moment of glorious surrender
You were broken for all the world to see
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath

Freedom found in Your scars
In Your grace my life redeemed
For You chose to take the sinner's crown
As You placed Your crown on me

[Chorus 2:]
In that moment of glorious surrender
Was the moment You broke the chains in me
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath
And in that moment You opened up the heavens
To the broken the beggar and the thief
Lifted out of the wreckage
I find hope in the aftermath

And I know that You're with me
Yes I know that You're with me here
And I know Your love will light the way

[Chorus 3:]
Now all I have I count it all as loss
But to know You and to carry the cross
Knowing I'm found
In the light of the aftermath

Big Band Bombardment

I have to admit that Ben's post prompted my music-engulfed evening tonight. I almost added "Blame Ben" in parenthesis to the title because the alliteration was there, in fact. :)

I was in the mood to mix it up from what I usually put on, so I put on "Beyond the Sea Radio" on Pandora -- my station for classics like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, and all of the other crooners. I have a particular soft spot for that kinda music.

Some nights just demand big band/swing music.

I think that the Big Band Era would have been a really fun time to live in. The dancing, the live music, the fashion of the times...yeah, I wouldn't mind living then. I'm a terrible swing dancer (coordination in general escapes me), though, so I would've been out of place.

Here's one of my favorites (and I love it either by The Drifters or Michael Buble, but I admire the fact that Michael Buble can pull off that classic sound in the modern times):



~"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." [-Berthold Auerbach]~

LoveLyrics

I love the lyrics to this song. They capture so much: optimism, a shared peace, determination to fix the problems and learn from them, enjoying time together...and that love is more than sappy songs make it out to be.

Love is the downs just as much as the ups. Love can be so, so difficult. Love is challenging

...whether it's a romantic kind, a friendship kind, or a family kind.


And love is necessary.

~"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." [-1 Cor. 13:13]~

Mark my words. Mark 11:27-33, to be exact.

Somehow my appreciation for my brother's music increases at 2 a.m., but I think that's just because my appreciation for any stimuli while I'm working on papers goes up at this hour, too.

I'm in midst of a 25 page paper. It's due on Friday. It's dominating my life right now. It's a mild obsession, really...sometimes amongst the research/writing journey it's genuine motivation that drives me, other times it's the grade. It's an exegetical on Mark 11:25-33. It's actually pretty fascinating, but it's definitely a bunch of work. There are 16 steps to cover, and a 25 page limit. I'm afraid to say that I may have to condense information because I may have too much, but we'll see. 11 down, 14 to go...

Wow, I can tell I've been exegetical-ing too much this weekend because I had the sudden urge to hit ctrl+s to save after writing that! Habitual now, I'm afraid...wasn't about to lose any pages due to some silly error or random computer shut down (gotta love the quirks of your technological objects!) or something.

So for the quote, how 'bout my exegetical text? Yeah! Enjoy!

MARK 11:27-33 TEXT (NIV)

²⁷They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. ²⁸“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?” ²⁹Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!” ³¹They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ³²But if we say, ‘From men,…” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) ³³So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”