CDs or Time Machines?

You know that feeling that comes over you when you listen to music you haven’t heard in while and you remember? You remember the first time you heard that song, or what you were doing (and with whom) while you were listening to it. You remember all of the times you clicked the previous button to hear that song over and over again. The emotion that comes with music is something that everyone can relate to. You have your fun songs, your sad songs, and those songs that shake you to your core; the ones you can’t listen to for more than a minute before bursting into tears, or the ones that make you laugh out loud as soon as they start playing through your speakers. 

Over the weekend, I was cleaning out my room, and I found a few CDs that weren’t labeled. I thought they might be blank, but as I turned them over in my hands, the scratches informed me otherwise. As I drove back to Norman this morning, I inserted the first CD into the stereo. As the music entered my ears, I was flooded with memories of him. The CD wasn’t romantic, by any means, but I was reminded of all of car rides, of jamming out to these songs at 2am in the middle of an abandoned parking lot, of thinking we could make it as rappers. As one memory ran into the next, I caught myself singing along to a song that I hadn’t heard in almost four years. I still don’t know the name of it, but I do remember listening to the song endlessly with him, trying to get the words just right. It was a Lil Wayne song, so who even knows what he was talking about. Something to do with a mouse in the kitchen… The point wasn’t that I loved the song, it was that I had loved spending time with him. He is someone who I never think about anymore, but it was fun to relive our time together through the duration of the CD. What we had our freshman year of college hadn’t ended badly, it had simply ended. This simple silver compact disk allowed me to partake in traveling back in time and laughing about what goofballs we were. When the CD returned to Track 1, I lightly pushed the eject button, and switched out the CDs to see what other memories I was going to be blessed with. 

After all, who doesn’t love reminiscing on the good times? 

When Time Ceases to Exist…

I came to write this post about my love for the band, Nahko and Medicine for the People, and when I went to click “new post” I noticed the “Inspire Me” button. I clicked that and look at what it said:

Take a line from a song that you love or connect with. Now forget the song, and turn that line into the title or inspiration for your post.

I swear, things like this happen to me all the time. The Universe is always giving me encouragement like this. It’s not like I hear voices or see things that anyone else doesn’t. What this spiritual connection feels like is a pull, almost. Let me tell you guys a story about my friend Cory, and then something that happened to me the other day, and it might make a little bit more sense.

My great pal Cory is one of the more spiritual people in my life. He was always getting me into new kinds of music, inspiring me to try new things, and introducing me to extremely awesome people. Cory and I had a great connection, right from the beginning, and I think that influenced our conversations. Cory spoke freely with me about his past experiences, which were never boring. I looked forward to Cory’s tales because they were entertaining and, if I listened closely enough, contained whispers of wisdom. Anyway, one night last summer, Cory, Kate (my best friend), and I were sitting on his back porch and he started telling us about an experience he had during his time in Michigan at a music festival called Electric Forest. (Which I am going to in just a few weeks and could not be more excited) He said that one night while he was “experiencing” the forest, a beautiful girl in fairy wings appeared and whispered “Time does not exist,” and fluttered away without another word. This story was accompanied with other tales of the wondrous luster that is the forest, but this story is the one that meant the most to me. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I am constantly on a deadline, or the fact that I am extrememly motivated by time, but Cory’s tale of the nameless fairy is what has made me the most excited for this music festival.

When I was walking to class the other day, I noticed a patch of beautiful fuchsia flowers, and while I wanted to stop and smell them, I had to be at class, so I continued on. After class, I was half-way to my car, when I remembered the roses. I walked back to that area, and suddenly had this inexplicable pull towards a bench that was nearby. As I sat my back-pack down, I noticed that the bench had a plate with an inscription attached to it’s back. Here’s the bench:

Not the best picture I have ever taken.

Here it was, almost a year since Cory had told me the fairy story, and the Universe reminded me. I found it incredibly ironic, considering I hadn’t stopped earlier because I was in a rush to get to class, but it just proves to me that the Universe gives you wisps of inspiration just when you need them.

These are the flowers! They didn’t really smell, but they sure are beautiful.