I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort shows ~ the stories I keep coming back to again and again. Sometimes it’s a book, like a Jane Austen, a much loved mystery, or a fairytale.

Sometimes it’s music, songs that send me to a time or place I was at peace. There’s an album that transports me to springtime, walking down a sidewalk in a neighborhood I used to live, as the first flowers bud and the trees sprout fresh, green leaves.

There are kpop albums that have me back in my car, years ago, with the windows down, the moment as bright as the sun shining outside.

Even further back, there are the songs I listen to for the people who listened to them. When I listen to the Carpenters I can hear my mom’s soft soprano even more clearly than the lead singer. Old hymns too, remind me of her singing my sister and I to sleep. When I hear Antonio Carlos Jobim, Earth, Wind & Fire, Santana, (and many others), I can hear my dad plucking on his guitar, reminiscing about what bands had actual good concerts back in the 1970s. (Before meeting my mom he spent all excess cash on music and concert tickets).

I listen to Eisley or Tilly & the Wall to hear my sisters singing along with me. Of Montreal lets me see my brother’s exaggerated lip syncing as he drives. There are Disney songs, Danny Kaye musicals, and random songs of the Marx Brothers that my family can quote line by line. There’s probably even more that I’m forgetting…

To all the music, and all the memories,

Love, February

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