just some late night/early morning thoughts I felt like sharing....

There are times, early in the morning, as I lie awake in bed listening to the radio here in Saipan, that my life takes on an almost surreal quality. It’s now 3:17am ... It’s my favorite time of day. Things are quiet. I’m listening to 103.9FM, (sort of a Lite-FM-type format) and just heard “Dancing Queen” by Abba, followed by “Sharing the Night Together” by Dr. Hook, and “Let’s Get it On” by Marvin Gaye. A few days ago I heard “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas. Now, if you’re not familiar with those songs, they are big 70’s and early 80’s hits. What’s significant about those songs in particular is that they’re from a period in the 70’s and 80’s that corresponds to my best memories of life in Jamaica before I moved to the states, and during the summers when, homesick, I would go back to visit.

Like a lot of people, music, for me has always been a special marker of moments. They are life's soundtrack capable of eliciting memories of moments lived. When I hear those songs, I’m immediately transported to those early innocent times of my life and feel a nostalgia mixed with an indescribable peace and contentment that makes me almost cry. (“That’s the Time I Feel Like Making Love” by Roberta Flack, “Loving You by Minnie Ripperton” and Rock the Boat by the Hues Corporation are three songs in particular that have that effect on me).

So here I am, many years later, living once again in a tropical paradise that has almost the same feel of Jamaica back in the 70s, eating the same fruits that grow there, meeting nice people with the same nomadic/adventurer streak, surrounded by warm, friendly people and the native beauty I like, and experiencing the career fulfillment, fame and acceptance on the level I have dreamt of and strived all my life to create.

So when I hear these songs in this my new dream life, time slows down, and it’s like I’ve been given another chance to pick up and continue my life where I’ve always felt like it was halted. And when I hear any other songs from my past, they too feel different. They’re being reprogrammed into new memories, synchronized with a new set of feelings and becoming the soundtrack of this my new life’s adventure.

They say you can’t go back. “They” would be wrong, indeed. But I’ve even done one better: I’ve gone back and taken my dreams with me.

I wish everyone the singular experience and joy of finding the dream that feeds them and of getting the chance to live it on their own terms.

Let the music play.

Labels: Lifestyle

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