The Music in Our Lives

"I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean. Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens."

You probably recognize these powerful words from the song, "I Hope You Dance," by Lee Ann Womack. I clearly remember the first time I heard them: I was driving in my car with my first baby in the back seat. I remember thinking that the sentiments expressed in the song were clearly those of a mother with hopes and dreams for the future of her child. The memory of hearing this for the first time is so strong that I can even remember which street I was driving on. Music has a way of staying with you, of making memories even more memorable.

Scrapbooking is about preserving memories. So, how do we take the memories associated with music, an art form that is purely auditory, and preserve them in scrapbooks, a visual art form? Perhaps this article has already illustrated the answer. When you read the first sentence of this article, did you hear a melody in your head? Did the words conjure up a memory or vision, like they do for me? Maybe you even started to sing. For many of us, the music in our lives can be brought to mind simply by stating the lyrics.

I have not yet used the quote above in a layout, but I will if I ever capture that perfect photo of one of my children looking small by the ocean. However, while this song is part of the music in my life, it is not in my sons' lives. While they may have heard it playing on the radio, they would not recognize the melody or the words if they heard it. In their scrapbooks, I try to capture both my music and theirs.

Sometimes a particular song can be an important part of an event, as shown in this layout "Take Me Out":

Clearly this refers to the famous song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." If the reader were to look at the hidden journaling, they would learn why the song is more applicable than just being about a ball game. My son is now an avid baseball fan, but this layout was created when he was just three. His dad was taking him to his first major league game. He practiced this song for weeks before the game, so he would be able to sing along during the seventh-inning stretch.

Sometimes, a song title or part of a song can be used to represent an interest or a period in someone's life as shown in this layout, "Life Is a Highway":

When the Disney movie "Cars," came out last year, we took our sons to see this movie. While we thought they would enjoy the movie, we could not have anticipated that it would become a life-changing event. Previous to the movie, both boys were interested in trains. Since the movie, they are interested in race cars. Their interest has gone beyond the characters in the movie to reading books about NASCAR, watching other race car movies, and building race cars from Legos (as shown here). Naturally, the soundtrack from "Cars" has been playing in my car for much of the last six months. "Life Is a Highway" is the title of one of the songs from the movie, and my older son's favorite. This layout uses that song to combine the memory of the movie with his new hobby. I am hoping that years from now, he'll see this title and remember that song and this innocent period in his life.

There are many other ways to scrap the music in your life. Take photos when you attend a concert, or just scrap the ticket stub and your memories from the show. There is also the way you listen to the music. Kids today might think the LP's and 8-track players from my childhood were quaint. Take a photo of your MP3 player and scrap that along with a copy of your playlist.

Next time you hear a song that brings back a memory or you hear a loved one humming a tune, think about the importance of that song in your life. Do you want to preserve the memories associated with this music? If you do, consider including the title or lyrics in your next layout. And, when you do, "I Hope You Dance."