Nostalgia

I have just spent the last week hanging out in Barcelona, Madrid, and Edinburgh with my mom. We ate a lot of good food, drank some good wine, and had a lot of good conversation. I'll post about that later. In the mean time... A fun, rather pointless list of songs that have specific memories attached to them. These are a few of those songs that, when they come up on my itunes shuffle, I immediately think of a specific person or moment in time.

1. Move Along by the All American Rejects: High school track. This always reminds me of taking the midnight bus home from track meets with my teammates, being exhausted and celebrating all the medals our team won.

2. Borrow Mine by Bebo Norman: Junior year of high school. Brand new Christian, dealing with more than crap than I realized life could dish out all at once... It reminds me of all the moments I despaired and was reminded how big my God is.

3. Dance with Me Baby by Ben Rector: This past Spring. Well, really, all Ben Rector songs remind me of last Spring. It was such a humbling, joyful time in my life full of sweet friends and community and challenges, preparing me for my next chapter in life. It was just what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

4. Soldier by Brandon Heath: This was on a cd given to me by my Younglife leader Carrie, just before she and Allison left for Summer Staff for a month. To my 15 year old self, this was the biggest deal ever, and this song reminds me of all that time it felt like they'd never come back, that I'd never figure this whole Christianity thing out, and that life was all just some big crazy mistake. A sweet reminder when I find my 20-year-old self thinking something is a really big deal when it really isn't.

5. Our God by Chris Tomlin: This one is more recent. I listen to this song when I walk home from school here. It's about an hour-long walk, and it is when some of my sweetest conversations with Jesus happen. This makes me think of sunshine on my face, a cool wind blowing, finding myself in a surreal place with a heart absolutely overflowing. I can't not smile. :)

6. Shake Me Like a Monkey by Dave Matthews Band: driving around Joshua Tree National Park with Kenny, Kate and Ben, windows down and this song blasting, looking for a good place to climb for the day. And trying to thaw out.

7. F*ck You by Cee-Lo Green: Driving to Chattanooga with Kenny in the middle of the night, sleeping for a few hours, driving to Atlanta, getting sick in the back of a itty-bitty Cessna because a crazy man let Kenny attempt to land our plane, driving back to Chattanooga, hiking T-wall in the hottest sun ever, and then leading my first trad route ever. One of the most ridiculous days of my entire life.

8. No Reins by Rascal Flatts: No idea why, but this song makes me think of windows down on the highway in Saint Louis, of my best friend and my sister and going to Katy's house. All the things that used to give me a little bit of that freedom that, in high school, I was terrified I'd never have.

9. Slow Mo by Steve Moakler: this makes me think of the Beaman. It makes me think of the wall and spending all my time there... (Entirely too much, really.) It makes me think of Kaley and how this was always playing when she was there. This is one of those songs that I rarely listen to here in Spain, because it reminds me of a few people that I miss more than I can stand.

10. Come, Ye Sinners: This one is kind of a dead give-away. It's tattooed to my arm. It's an old hymn, and the moment I first heard it is the moment I knew God was more than an angry Grandpa/Santa Clause in the sky. When I hear it, when I see it on my wrist, I am instantly taken back to that moment: more heartbroken, lonely and angry than I thought possible, with an inkling that I might be loved more than I could possibly understand.