Who's Holding Donna Now?

What’s on your radio station? When quiet, songs come into my head out of the blue, and I never listen to the radio anymore except in the car. I’ll occasionally bring up a playlist on YouTube, but mostly it’s a playlist in my head that runs from from my childhood in the 80's and 90's. I find when allowing myself space in silence for my intuition to come through, these songs will arise—anywhere from Ramble On by Led Zepplin to Neutron Dance by The Pointer Sisters. I am Gen X through and through. I grew up with my dad blasting The Pointer Sister’s album in the convertible and listening to New Edition on my Walkman in the house. I knew every word to albums of Lionel Richie, Debbie Gibson, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Kenny Rogers and Prince. When Thriller came out, I remember the album cover and taking the record out of its sleeve, inviting my friends over to my mom’s basement to dance to it on a Saturday night sleepover. Now it pops up in my head from my subconscious telling me important information about my present circumstances.

I think about how much I loved music into my thirties and how it faded away somehow. It wasn’t as important, and yet there are times when the music, as if out of the ether, comes back to me, expressing some theme that I am going through. It feels like magic. I can feel it in my heart, feel it my soul- let the music take control 😀 Apparently this is called an earworm fragment - what a horrible name to give a musical memory! Way to ruin the mood and the magic, scientists!

According to Google AI pulled from Allison Hagendorf:

Music bypasses conscious thought to tap straight into the subconscious and long-term memory. Hearing a familiar melody activates deep brain structures like the hippocampus and amygdala, which store emotional and autobiographical events. This creates instant, involuntary memory recall—often called music-evoked nostalgia—long after other factual memories fade. The science of nostalgia is real as scientists call this “music-evoked autobiographical memory.”

My sister reminded me that I loved music when I was young. Over time I found I didn’t want to be affected by music. I want to be my own music. This wasn’t a conscious thought but more of a gradual process of wanting more silence in my life. It was essentially a desire to be in my own energy, and not the energy of others—to have more time with my own rhythms and heartbeats. And yet, my head is a soundtrack of all these songs that are wired into my brain through my formative years and beyond.

I remember listening to the intro line "Josie's on a vacation far away" by the Outfield and being at the corner of Calvert and Wisconsin in my dad’s convertible heading off to the beach; dozing off to Careless Whisper at age 10 in my bed as if I had already had a lifetime of romances. Lionel Riche—Da oh, well the time has come my friends, to raise the roof and have some fun…

I realize that this blog must evolve with my psyche or it can't continue. Staying on brand would be equivalent to staying stuck. I’m evolving from the seriousness of spiritual awareness to the playfulness of sacral fire and I hope to mix up the two (put the needle on the record, put the needle on the record)😄 Since music wires into our subconscious, this new chapter of the blog will be focusing on themes of music where I weave together the same things of themes of psychology and personal growth but hopefully bring more fun and nostalgia into the content.

So come along, into this new energy— we’re going to party, fiesta, forever, and delve into all the darker, deeper themes that are expressed through music as well. After all, we are light and shadow, dark, light, ying, yang. 2 π radians = a circle. Duality is the law of the universe. I look forward to exploring it with you over time…if anyone finds this blog…which brings to mind…“message in a bottle.”

What songs are lodged in your brain from childhood and teenage years? From other important memories? My inquiring mind want to know! 

Soul-Prompt: If I create quiet in my day, what songs come into my head and what are they telling me about my life now?