August 31, 2014
My friend, Kurt is educated and cultured in the musical arts, he listens to a broad range of music on his JP4 player. It seems like every time I ask him about a group, or band, or song, he not only knows exactly who and what I'm talking about, but he usually has it on his player already. Kurt listens to a lot of music, from every style and date in our American history. My parents and grandparents have always listened to a wide variety of music also, so I've already developed an interest for things such as jazz, blues, Frank Sinatra, reggae, etc., if my family played it then I listened to it. But I never was drawn to the music they listened to until now, now that I hear Kurt listen to much of all this different music that I see and hear it all differently now. Now this music brings a calming sense of peace into my life that I never felt before. Growing up, my friends were all listening to the hard rock, the rap and the R&B stuff, so naturally that's what I've been drawn to for many years. Now that I'm sober, trying to find peace in my daily life and improve the quality of my life I can see the value in other music that I never saw before. If you listen to the lyrics to hard rock, rap and all this other up to date stuff that gets played out on the radios, you'll notice it's all about sex, drugs, bad relationships, money, violence and rage. So many negative, shallow, useless topics that saturate the mind with trouble and turbulence, the opposite of that calming, serene sense of peace and love with self that I'm always searching for these days. So I made a personal commitment to start investing in better music, purchasing blues and jazz music any time I have extra money for more music on my player. It all originally started with my daily morning yoga and meditation, wanting something to help me clear my mind and thoughts each morning, so I purchased an album from Depak Chopra, with mantras and sounds of waterfalls and flutes and other soothing sounds and it all made me feel so light and clear headed, so I downloaded more Depak Chopra, falling in love with the new found sense of peace each morning, I realized this was something I needed, something I had to have for myself and my sober life, not just in the mornings, but whenever I have the chance to make peace with myself, letting go of things I have no control over and letting God take the reins in my life. I still listen to new music such as new rock and R&B, especially when I'm working out, trying to stay pumped up and energized enough to push through it, but now I listen to many other great things throughout the day. The last album I purchased was Miles Davis, not a single lyric spoken or sung, just great sounding instruments.
