Finding peace with Hall & Oates...

It is now officially Thursday. Thank God. While I don't feel I gained much from my reading deprivation, I will say I enjoyed jamming to tunes while driving. It was a rather nice change from my continuous rotation of audio books. My current obsession is Hall & Oates. My husband, being a musician, gets to meet famous people somewhat regularly, but it rarely impresses me much. Unless it's No Doubt or Ben Folds, I don't really care. However, a month or so ago while working at the hotel, I received a text from him saying he was hanging backstage with John Oates of Hall & Oates. Well, all of my couth flew out the window and was replaced with a spark of jealousy. I was so excited I proceeded to tell my coworker and the man he was checking in, which I would normally consider quite unprofessional. Though, this led to a beautiful duet of Sara Smile between my coworker and me, which would be much funnier if you knew him and how straight-laced he is. Anyhow, the good- no, amazing- news is that soon I will be texting people telling them that I am hanging out backstage with Hall AND Oates! They will be playing a show in my husband's hometown on his mom's birthday, the day before my birthday, and we are going! I can't wait! After a lame 30th by myself last year, this year's celebration will more than make up for it. I can still remember listening to them on my old black cassette tape, asking for their new tape for Christmas, and being scared of Maneater when I was little. So great.

In fact, they inspired me to create my own rockin' 80's mix yesterday. I'm talkin' about a good mix, not the ones you buy in Wal-Mart that only include songs from Molly Ringwald movies. I have some Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam in there, some Jets, and some Tubes, and The Human League. The good stuff, in other words. Listening to that stuff lifts me up. It's like oldies. You can't be in a horrible mood and listen to this music. It's too happy. I wish music were still like that. It's amazing the effect so many tiny little things can have on your mood. When you surround yourself with positive people, with things you love, colors you love, music that is uplifting and fun, books that make you think, sounds and smells that relax you, you are filled with peace. Unfortunately, our culture is not filled with a lot of these things. So it becomes dangerous to partake in certain simple behaviors. I got a particularly cool quote in my inbox today from Martha Beck, life coach extraordinaire. It said:

"Begin making choices based on what makes you feel freer and happier, rather than how you think an ideal life should look. It’s the process of feeling our way toward happiness, not the realizing of some Platonic ideal, that creates our best lives."

I think this is a huge statement. So many of us in this country are blinded by the pictures in the magazines and the families in the movies. We want this; we want that. We want other people to see us as this or that. But what looks good is often not what feels good. The good news is that what feels good is often way simpler to achieve. Sitting outside and feeling the breeze on your face. Going to Dave and Buster's out of the blue and playing video games with your husband for no reason at all. Weeding your garden just to feel the dirt between your fingers. Listening to Hall & Oates. Surrounding yourself with peace brings that peace within.


So, as The Human League so simply put it:
Keep feeling fascination. Looking, learning, moving on.