Nostalgia

If you know me, you'll know that I really enjoy my music. Only after reflecting on it for a while did I realise how much of my life is surrounded by music. I listen to music to wake up in the morning. I listen to music on the way to school. I listen to music sometimes straight through the school day, and also on the way back. As I am travelling, I always make sure to have my trusty cd player at my side. And only recently have I stopped listening to certain types of music before I go to bed at night. Such is the case for a lot of people. Are lives are engulfed by music. Not that this is a bad thing. It can be a bad thing sometimes, but that's not what I'm here to touch on, so ignore that last sentence completely.
Music also has the power to strongly influence our emotions. It can make us happy, sad, angry, etc. It is very helpful to listen to the type of music that can be best associated with your emotions at the time. For example, nothing beats listening to some Tool or Three Days Grace when you're really peeved off at something. Alexisonfire and The Offspring are good for when you just want to go crazy and jump around like an idiot, or bands like Copeland or Mae when you feel like you just might have fallen in love and are on top of the world. Maybe a little Postal Service or Relient K when you just feel like smiling? That's more than enough examples for you to understand what I mean. Eventually, songs or bands start to take on a sort of nostalgic effect. This would have to be the most valuable thing music has to offer in my opinion. Because music is so constantly listened to throughout our lives, we can often attribute certain periods of time or specific events to particular songs or bands. Have you ever popped in a cd and while listening to it, thought to yourself "yeah, this takes me back to when *insert scenario here"? I love that feeling. Speaking in terms of specific days, throwing on Jimmy Eat World's Clarity takes me back to the first days of grade 9 where I was a nervous wreck, and the soothing tracks "For Me This Is Heaven" and "Goodbye Sky Harbor" were the only thing to pacify me at night. As for general points in my life, highs can be associated with cd's like blink-182's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, and mae's Destination: Beautiful. While some low points can be linked to cd's like Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory and System of a Down's Toxicity. At times, music can take you back to moments that are so incredibly specific. Like everytime I listen to Brandtson, I'm taken back to this one day that I stayed home from school and walked my dog. It relates in no big way to that day except for the fact that I happened to listen to it during my walk with Toby. Why that doesn't happen with all cd's I don't know, but it's great when it does.
Nostalgia is just another great thing you can get out of music. So throw on an old cd, sit back and reminisce. It's pretty interesting finding out what cds you can relate to certain points of your life. It's amazing what you can get out of music sometimes.

Looking for the Brigher Side

There's usually a brighter side to most things in life. Look hard enough and you'll find it 90% of the time. Even if there isn't one, more often than not you can create a brighter side. Only problem is, when you can't seem to find it, you panic. What happens when the reassurance of the brighter side is muffled by clouded, self destructive thoughts and the light suddenly dims? You search for the switch but it's too dark to be found, and all hope is seemingly lost for some time. Of course, if you just take your time and let your eyes adjust to the dark, breathe deep, flip the switch and continue onward, you'll eventually be fine again... but it doesn't erase the uneasy discomfort of the dark. All you can do is just push it back. Push it down. Pray that you'll never be left in the dark again, and that the bright side is always just a step away.

Praise & Prayer

Bonjour mes amis! Comment ca va? Ah, who am I kidding. I only wish I could speak french, and I would have too, if it wasn't for that pesky school of mine! Ugh, It's seriously about time I stopped being bitter about Mary Ward letting me screw myself over. I'm actually here to talk about what's been on my heart lately. To whoever reads this, you can either take it or leave it. No, I haven't come to any profound conclusions or haven't had any epiphanies or revelations to speak of. However, I've been much more aware of God and how he has been speaking to me. Lately I've been kind of reminded of a few truths about worship.
Worship is something I participate in on a fairly consistent basis, but not like I should. The purpose of worship is to do just that. Worship. Not because you feel obligated to. Not because you're in a particularly good mood that day. Not because it will help you sleep better tonight, but because God is worthy of it. Too often do we enter into worship and leave unsatisfied. Why? Because we're doing it for the wrong reasons. Maybe we think that it'll make us feel good inside if we sing some happy Jesus songs and jump around. Maybe we think it'll fix our problems for a bit. And yeah, maybe it will. But to enter into worship with that kind of attitude will get us nowhere. Worship is not worship unless we are 100% focused on praising God, even when you don't particuarly feel like it because you've had a rough day. God is always deserving of our praise, and if we keep this in mind we can't go wrong.
The same goes for prayer. It is extremely important to enter into prayer with a completely humble and thankful heart, otherwise our prayers can start to get self centered and the whole point of prayer goes right out the window. Remember: It's not what you get out of it that matters, it's what you put into it.
These are just somethings that have been on my mind. I also really liked this psalm that I read the other day. It's a good psalm to encourage praise and or prayer, which is why i'm mentioning it. So...here she is ladies and gents!

I lift my eyes up to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and creator of earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber; Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand; The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
-Psalm 121

'Tis one of my favourites, and a good one to memorize. Well I hope everyone is doing just swimmingly! Now I must get back to my Pokemon! My Seedot is just 1 level away from evolving:D!