The magic of music.

Every life is accompanied by music, no matter where you are from, no matter where you are headed: Music is and always will be part of your journey.

I fell in love with music when I was little. My childhood household wasn’t very musical, both my brother and I played the recorder and the guitar but gave up once other things just seemed more interesting. My mom loves singing, whereas my dad would rather skydive (and he is afraid of heights) before he would sing anything. But I loved Saturday mornings, when the sun was shining through the windows of our second floor apartment in Vienna and my dad would turn on the radio while working on miscellaneous chores around the house. Whenever he really liked a song, he would rush to the radio and turn up the music and he would start dancing and I would join in, standing on his toes. Music connects in ways that words, pictures and the grandest of gestures can’t.

My 8-year-old-self always imagined a musical house, when I grew up. Lots of singing and dancing. The second I would get home, I would always close the door to my room and put on Michael Jackson and David Hasselhoff (!). I would do my own little dance routines and sing on the top of my lungs, imaging a huge crowd cheering me on. It was magical – although me listening to the same songs over and over again wasn’t magical to my parents. At one point they took away my CD-player, trying to figure out if it was broken, since it seemed to be stuck on one song…

As I grew older, I slowly realized that not everyone loved music the way I did. Not many people want music in their homes constantly. They want it in their car or at work, but at home? No. In their homes they want TV shows and movies and anything else that gives them comfort, but nothing gives me the comfort that music does after a hard day at work or school. I thought that I was strange and that my longing for music had to be choked and a big part of me was heartbroken. A house without music, what home could that be? After all, who hasn’t listened to a random song on the radio and reminisced about something that happened ages ago? Falling in love, meeting friends, enjoying a wonderful walk in the park. All of these memories can be triggered by a single note, isn’t that magical?

8 years ago I met A Contra dancing in Glen Echo, MD and although I don’t remember every single detail of that particular evening, I remember the feeling that the music gave me that night. A and I danced the night away while the band played one song after another and to this day, the music the band played that night is still ringing in my ears. That’s the day I met the love of my life, my now husband, the man that brought music back into my life and back into my home and most importantly back to my heart.

That’s the funny thing about the longings of the heart, sometimes pieces just fall into places and everything makes sense. The moment I met A, music became the biggest part of our lives. It’s a connection between us, Billie Holiday’s “All of me”, The Toxic Airborne Event rendition of “Book of Love” and anything from the talented Rachel Bloom, really. But it’s not just the music that others make, it’s also the silly little songs that A constantly sings from dusk til dawn and I kid you not. He would wake me up at 5.30 in the morning singing a song about coffee and breakfast and getting up and enjoying the day. He would come home with the same tune and make up completely different words about dinner and how he is looking forward to just hanging out. His music constantly fills our home and although it does need some time to get used to – after all, listening to Katy Perry’s “fireworks” tune while A makes up lyrics like “oatmeal is the greatest thing ever” is not quite what one longs to hear 2 minutes after you just woke up. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.

With this, I wish you all a very happy Valentine’s Day. Enjoy the day, whether you are in a relationship or not, doesn’t make a difference, enjoy yourself and most importantly, just put on some music and dance.