Category Archives: Feel the Music

Feel the Music

As you may know, I’m trying to date again. My daughter and I were talking about all the men I’ve met that haven’t lasted a week. We still laugh about the one who stared at my hair during our first meetup, and asked, “What’s your natural hair color?” I guess it’s hard to discern through all the strands of grey. 🙂

I keep telling my daughter that God knows my heart and He has the one for me, although some days it does feel like I’m sorting through a lot of men.

I had coffee with my neighbor, and she’s using dating apps. She’s actually the person who gave me the courage to try again. During our conversation I realized she and I want the same thing. We’re holding out for that spark. She went on to say, “I know it’s out there Barb because I’ve had it many times before!”

So have I, and this song reminds me of that spark.

Maybe you were one of the 20 people who viewed The Girl Almighty post about not finding a man of faith to date. I removed the post and reverted it back to drafts, because I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Being able to share this song with you today gives me an inclination that I’ll be able to share more about my dating ventures in future posts.

But for now, Barb’s holding out for that spark.

If the video doesn’t show up, click here to view.

Feel the Music

Back in my Network Marketing days, it was often said, “Find somebody who has what you want, and do what they did.” It sounds simple enough, but what they don’t tell you is everything they had to go through to get there.

Walking into the house from tending the yard, I’d left the music playing and this is the song I heard. This was 2017, right as Sheeran was becoming well-known, but this duet was still a dream come true for him. I’m posting the actual video so you can see the look of awe and wonder on his face.

It’s obvious he feels honored to be there and have this opportunity to sing alongside Andrea Bocelli. I love the look on Ed’s face as he walks through the hallway lined with awards and photographs. He sees proof of what years of work and dedication will bring, and it shows as he takes it all in.

For the duet to come off without a hitch, Ed had to learn Italian and said, “If you’re going to be the best at something, let it be Italian.”

Andrea obliged doing this remake with Ed out of the love for his son, who is a huge Sheeran fan. As you’ll see in the video, they are sitting in a room full of love. When the song makes it’s final cut, Ed says, “Its exactly what I wanted.” I’m not sure if he’s referring to the song, or the feeling in the room.

Click here to watch video.

Feel the Music

My post on dating apps has been pulled back into drafts. I may do a mini-series of my experience using the apps, but here’s what I’ve seen across the board. It’s all about putting yourself out there. Making yourself emotionally, mentally and physically available.

It’s easier being single. I get to do what I want, anytime I please, and thoroughly enjoy my life, but the part I miss is when the ‘I’ becomes ‘we’.

No relationship is perfect, but I believe it’s so important that we have them. I don’t believe we were created to roam this earth alone, but over time we get used to it and it begins to feel good. A new normal. We know what to expect, because it’s only us in the picture.

I love on people, and have even made it my job to do so. I get paid to make peoples lives easier and in some ways better. My life motto is, ‘Leave them better than I found them’, so I have love in my life, but I miss the being in love.

There’s no other feeling like it and love will find us when we make ourselves available to be found.

Feel the Music

I was driving to meet my friend for our monthly coffee/tea, and heard this song. It was released in 2004, so around 2006 I heard it playing all the time. My mind began flipping through images and they weren’t all pretty, but I could see how far our life has come.

In 2008, I created an email address called abetterlife08. It was a Yahoo account and I named it that to keep those words in front of me while I worked. I can barely remember what happened two days ago, but I still remember sitting in the corner of that home office opening a Yahoo account and naming it abetterlife08. I was 10 years sober and life was better, but I didn’t recognize the man I was married to. When I think about that part of my life long enough, I can feel the tension that home office held.

In 2013 I exited that life.

Standing here in this little lake house 8 years later, I’m overwhelmed by God’s goodness and grace. Did it take 8 years Barb? No, I began seeing a better life the very first year, but it all began with believing there was one. Using that email address kept abetterlife at the forefront of my mind until the time was right to step into a better life.

Feel The Music

I heard this song last Sunday, and began composing a post after publishing To Be Seen. Unfortunately, I’ve been messing with it every day this week up until the final moment of it’s scheduled publish.

I shared this song with my daughter and told her it’s up next for Feel the Music. It didn’t take her but a moment of listening it to recognize the voice singing is Pink. My favorite part of the song is how she lays down her sword to dive into the pain. I don’t do that nearly often enough, but look forward to the day my sword can retire.

My daughter is my biggest fan, and I’m hers. She is my first like on a post and knows beforehand when one is going to be published. This one was scheduled for 10:00 am, but I haven’t heard from her this morning, so I’ll wait. We always show up for one another, but the timing of our lives doesn’t always align. The timing is not as important as the doing.

If she were here she’d say, ‘Stop rewriting the post!”, but maybe that’s okay. If nothing else she sees that you can rewrite your story down to the very last minute. I do know at some point to stop typing and kick it into cyberspace.

That’s all I know so far.

Feel the Music

It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted a Feel the Music. That surprised me, but even more so was looking through and realizing the first one was posted almost 4 years ago! I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I remember the day Feel the Music was born.

I was driving my truck down a back road, listening to the radio, and pondering my Blog. A song began to play, and it was Big Daddy Weave singing, ‘My Story’. Right then, I knew Feel the Music was supposed to become a series in my Blog. It contained those three words, like all my Blog titles did, but this was more than one post. It was going to be a regular thing.

I didn’t drive my truck very much last year, so some time has passed since posting one, but I still have a heart for music. It has helped pull me through some tough spots in my life. I’ve used it as an escape, and I’ve played it to chase after God. From cleaning a chicken coop knowing my marriage was at it’s end, to standing on a pier on 40 acres of land, surrounded by nothingness.

Music healed my heart many times.

Yesterday, I told my daughter something I needed to hear too. I said, “You didn’t come this far, to only come this far.” The inspiration for this song didn’t come while driving my truck, so I need to make myself available to inspiration other than my truck.

Someone in my Fearless community posted a meme of this song because he is halfway to his monthly goal. Maybe we are all halfway there and don’t even realize it. The one thing I do know is, life wouldn’t be worth living without a prayer. Enjoy!

Live Like That

I’m going through my Blog posts one by one.

I’ve been wanting to take time to do this for a while, and then I read a post over at Renards World, and he recommended it. His post entitled, 5 Reasons to Explore Your Archives is excellent. He suggested an app to assist, but I prefer to do it by hand.

The main reason I wanted to do this is because I knew there were a lot of missing photos. It’s not pretty to look at a post with a photo missing. It leaves a big gap in the post, and an ‘X’, similar to a broken link. The irony is, I did this to the posts myself without realizing it.

When you decide to clean up your media, every photo deleted is also removed from the post, but it leaves it’s mark.

This morning, I came across this post from January 2016. The title of the post reminded me of a song entitled, Live Like That. I’ve noticed some interesting things reading each post, and haven’t deleted as many as I thought I would.

I’m not rewriting them either.

Those early posts from 2014 through 2016, are a part of who I am today. There is one common theme in every post I’ve read, and it’s God. Re-reading them confirmed how I choose to live this life.

I want to continue to live like that.

 

 

Feel the Music

I asked Google to tell me a joke.

She said, “Why does the scarecrow keep being promoted? Because he’s outstanding in his field.”

After that, I feel better about my jokes, and it made me think of this song.

This is one of those country songs that makes my daughter cringe. She doesn’t care for it much, because she knows how easily it can become a reality.

heavysoul

Our first home together, living solo, was on 40 acres. The drive to the house was down this long, winding country road. It was beautiful, but you felt like you were out in the middle of nowhere. This song had been released around that time.

During the drive, you would see these huge piles of wood out in the middle of empty fields. With a lit match, that would become somebody’s Friday night.

Songs like this bring out that little bit of crazy Redneck I have ingrained in me.

I drive a truck, and boots, jeans and a t-shirt are still my favorite clothes.

What is it they say? “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”

We’re outstanding in our field.

Feel the Music

It decided to rain today.

The dogs are not pleased, but patient inside.

They probably dislike that I’m perfectly content on rainy days by reading, writing or both. One sits beside me displaying his most pitiful expression, coinciding with a tail wag.

The day began with coffee and slid into English tea and scones. My daughter laughed when I told her, “I bought a fireplace!“, but it takes center stage on days like today.

My music taste recently on YouTube has been Lewis Capaldi. My daughter told me about him and he is referred to as ‘America’s Sweetheart.’ You can hear his voice because the instrumental is minimal.

After YouTube played several songs by Lewis, it created a playlist of similar artists. Normally, I feel a need to walk over and click ‘skip’ on the ads, or the song itself, but that didn’t happen today. It was a divine playlist that went from one heartfelt melody to the next.

It’s been playing for hours and I just now touched the screen to share this song with my daughter and you.

It’s been two years since posting my first Feel the Music and today, my darlings, that’s what I did.

Feel the Music

It was in March of 2017 I posted the first Feel the Music. God probably put it on my heart before then, but that is when I obeyed. 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, I did some deep cleaning. You know those areas we walk by, look at and smirk? This particular area was behind the stereo. Jumbled up wires covered in dog hair. There comes a point you’re just tired of walking by it.

I borrowed some zip ties from my neighbor and unplugged all of the equipment. Then I heard a noise. The sub woofer was making a clicking sound, but didn’t think much of it.  I untangled each cord and folded it into an organized bundle. Zip tied it and plugged everything back in.

I pulled up a song that has really good bass.

I was a little concerned about the clicking noise, but I think what happened was, the sub woofer reset itself to factory settings. My daughter had changed the settings at some point and dialed back the bass. Well darlings, after that little clean up expedition, my house is thumping again!

You can most definitely feel the music.