Prompt 9 – Motorcycles, Moose & Magic & The First Annual DWR Writing Awards

Book: Motorcycles, Moose & Magic – The Ride to Self-Love
Author: Tracey Rogers
Page 27, line 9
Genre: memoir, self-help/guidance
Local author!
Note: I went to the part of the book where the story begins, which is actually page 19, and counted 9 pages from there (skipping the blank page). That brought me to page 27. I counted 9 sentences in…

“As the music began to play, a deep self-reflection was triggered, and would continue for the rest of my journey.”

Music is an essential part of being alive. When I reach back into my past, many of my life’s most critical and extraordinary moments are bathed in a song. Music is woven consciously into humanity’s coveted experiences: births, marriages, deaths – from the start of life to the end, music plays an integral role in joining us in and enhancing our experiences.

When I was pregnant with both of my children, I sang to them. When they were hours old, sticky with new life, those songs I sang when they were in my belly, I sang into their sweet little ears. Music is a vital way we communicate, and even if our hearing is impaired, there is always the deep, vibrational connection to sounds that give music a voice to our fingertips or naked soles.

Do you ever find yourself humming? Wailing your favourite song in the shower? Perking your ears in the early morning, searching for the song of our winged friends perching on the branches of trees? Is there a more Canadian song than the deep-throttle buzz of a mid-flight goose or the chest-heavy wallow of a yearning loon?

I cannot listen to a symphony without crying. I feel the history of my ancestors in the belly of a drum, and that moves me to tears as well. Driving in my car alone, there have been pivotal life moments between me and the artist singing to me from the radio. When the words and the voice and the melody lift the magic out of my body into reality, letting me know I’m exactly where I need to be.

Singing is a big part of our family sharing. So is dancing. Neither could we do without music. My son sings when he works or plays video games, and he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it – it’s that beautifully intrinsic to his expressions. When we experience any feeling, we go to music to support our emotional journey. It is just what’s so.

What does music mean to you? Could you write your memoir by creating your ultimate mix-tape list? Are you a vinyl junkie or do earbuds do the trick? When you exercise, do you listen to music to pump you up or do you listen to the music of the wind as you run through it? There is no denying that since forever, music has existed as a key ingredient in the recipe of living.

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