I don't go Shopping
I am currently doing a course in Digital Skills, which encompasses a wide variety of topics all related to design and using the web, from graphic design and typography to blogging and website design. We’re on day three. It’s been a while since I’ve had a regular place to commute to on a daily basis I’m realising. I miss pottering at home and having lunch with my own food, cooked in my own kitchen and with endless cups of herbal teas, but when the sun is out, cycling across town on the seafront is an absolute delight.
The course is quite interesting and I do hope will add to the feathers on my bow, as they say, and I’ll be writing more on it soon, but what came to mind today as I was pondering what topic I’d like to explore for my next blog post, far overdue - yes, I know, life has been rather hectic, but I have certainly been acquiring material to use for future posts, so look out - something wonderful happened on my lunch break which directed me straight to where I’d like to commence writing in this new calendar year.
I crossed the road from the centre where the course is being held and headed to Taj, a new branch of a classic here in Brighton, indian-based organic and alternative foodstore. I enter and already the colours, variety and choice of alternative brands and food products delight my eyes. I can breathe in places like this, not so much in ASDA or any other supermarket to be honest. My eyes can’t take the lights and well, just everything about it, not to mention the overuse of plastic wrapping absolutely anything fresh, even bananas, which I have never understood and never will. In fact, when I still shopped regularly in these larger supermarkets, I had got to a point where the only way I could make it round the store floor was to put on my headphones and literally boogy my way in my own little world, oblivious to the marketing ads screaming over the loud speaker, the in-store messages and the boisterously bored kid desperately trying to get out of the tiny seat at the front of the trolley - he needs his own headphones and he’ll then just be able to chill and boogie away, I am sure of it.
As I make my way through Taj, I find myself being guided to the delicatessen stand. I realise that this is exactly what I fancy for lunch so I treat myself to a spinach and paneer curry with a really tasty-looking cumin rice. As I wait for my dish to be reheated, Indian music comes on and I just cannot help moving my body. The groove, rhythm, vocal melisma are hypnotic and energising. It’s automatic and immediate.
A new track starts playing and it’s even better. A smile spreads across my face. I turn around and say to the clerk behind the counter “This music is great, all shops should have this kind of music, it makes it so much more pleasurable!”. He shines a smile right back at me: “Ah, yes, this track is from the 90s from when I was young!”
The energy is infectious and people near us start smiling and moving a little. I leave that store with a skip in my step and my heart is a little lighter. The music opened up my body, my smile and also a conversation which had a ripple effect in the moment itself but will have a ripple effect throughout the day no doubt. If you’re curious, the track is this one:
So, for this mini article, what is my message? Yet again, I realise how powerful music is, how it can literally brighten up the day, the moment, a person and shift moods. Much like the weather in the UK, it can be dark and stormy one minute and then along comes an energy which shifts it all and once again there are blue skies. Or it can even go the other way, put on a track which evokes memories and nostalgia from past love connections, for example and before we know it emotions are coming to the surface we might rather not be feeling. But they’re there, inside somewhere, so better out than stagnant and laying dormant to seep through when we least expect it.
Music can change our moods. Music can bring back blue skies. Music can heal old wounds. Or quite simply, music can make a midweek lunch break that much more interesting and special.
What is music to you? Leave a comment below with any stories you may like to share.
Music is healing
Music is fun
Music is emotion
Music is connection
