A Month of Thanksgiving

With the advent of November this year, I've decided to take a leaf out of my Aunt Mar's book (or page out of her blog??) and record something that I'm grateful for every day.

This is huge for me for a couple of reasons:
1) Blogging everyday. (At least, that's the goal. I know that if I get behind and have to play catch-up, I'll just get lax and not actually complete my goal.)
2) Sharing the things I'm grateful for. I know I feel immense gratitude for the blessings in my life, but it's one thing to feel gratitude, and another to express it.

I really am excited about this--I've been thinking about it for the past couple of days as I've tried to think about what I want to share. And I have so many things I want to start with, but I think I'll begin with the basics.

Today, I am grateful for good music. And I'm grateful that I've been given the gift of being able to enjoy music. (My mom, for example, doesn't really care for music. There are some kinds of music she likes, but we never had music playing in our house while I was growing up--at least, not until Marilyn and I were old enough to provide our own music.)

In fact, sometimes if I wonder whether I listen to music too much. I've recently been trying to cut back a little (like when driving in the car--so hard to give up!) or when I'm cooking. I am learning to appreciate silence as well as music, but that's another post for another day.

A friend of mine once said that if the music he was listening to didn't make him smile, then it wasn't worth listening to. Since then, that's been my standard for the music I listen to.

These are a few of my current favorite songs - go ahead and give 'em a listen. Some may be a little different from the norm, but I love listening to/singing along with all of them. (Seriously, I think my soul soars when I listen to some of these.)

And if you only have time for one song - listen to the last one: I don't think that I could ever get tired of it. (It's been one of my very favorite songs for a couple of years now.)

Sweet Pea - Amos Lee

 



Behind the Moon - Matt Costa



Believe - The Bravery



Mardy Bum - Arctic Monkeys



Bullet - Steel Train



I Can't Stay - The Killers




After I decided on these songs, I realized that they are all sung by male singers, which really is my music preference I think. (I blame it on loving the Beach Boys so much as a kid. I just love the way male voices sound and blend. And I get tired of female voices pretty easily.)

(Side note: do you use Pandora? Do you want the best music station ever? Create a station using these three artists: Vampire Weekend, She & Him, and Dan Black. Make sure you have strict no profanity settings. Pandora will think you want to listen to artists like Kid Cudi, which it assumes because of your artist choice of Dan Black. Dislike the rap songs as they come on. The more you dislike them, the less they'll appear. Also, Pandora will start playing Alternative Rock. Dislike a few of these so that it doesn't get you on the wrong track. I'm betting that most of the music that will play will be stuff you're unfamiliar with, but give it a chance! It'll be mostly Indie music, but you'll get a pretty wide variety of stuff, from oldies to trip hop to more mainstream music. Be sure to tell Pandora what you do and don't like so you can personalize this awesome station to fit your tastes.)