Reclaiming a Song

A few years ago, I wrote about how music
gets intertwined with memories. There are thousands of songs that
within seconds transport me a certain time, location, and emotion. Once
a song is infused with a certain feeling, it’s pretty much impossible
for me to disassociate it ever again.



But not fully impossible.

There’s a Dixie Chicks song that I used to love. I was listening to it
on continuous repeat for a few weeks. It just turned out that I also had
some things happening in my life that were less than ideal and beyond my
control at the same time. So, pretty quickly, this song got entangled
with the situation and got associated with very sad and frustrating
feelings. Months passed and I still could never listen to this song
without reliving the events of that time and I quickly started avoiding
the song. Which really bummed me out since it was a fantastic song with
amazing lyrics that would have otherwise made me feel stronger and inspired.

Last night, on my way home, the song came up on my ipod and, to my
surprise, instead of the typical resentment, I felt the sense of
strength and empowerment I had felt before the song had gotten
associated with the sad events. I had finally completely given up my
resentment and finally moved on so it allowed me the space to reclaim
the song that I loved.



What a great way to feel the power of closure.