J. and I found a hairstylist near us - in the shopping center closest to our house which is an almost completely vacant property. A pizza place, frozen yogurt shop, Starbucks, a uniform store, G.'s hair salon and a few other spaces that appear to be mostly meeting spaces.
G. is in her 70's and is a fascinating, eclectic personality. She rented stations to other stylists before the pandemic and since reopening, the shop is pretty much just her. She's made me braver about trying a different hair style in my 61st year on the planet - and she was shocked when I said I was 60. "No!, can't be true" she exclaimed - but I told her it most certainly was true. She said 'you and your husband have such 'young' energy, I can't reconcile your age number with you'. I told her she must made my day/week/month. And said I owed it to starting to use moisturizer in my 30's and adding a renewal serum in my late 40's.
I always enjoy the music she plays - she uses Spotify and says she picks song lists she thinks people will like. Last visit (4 weeks ago), I heard a song that was just so beautiful, it gave me chills. I kept saying parts of the lyrics over and over in my head to try to remember the words - but since the words were in Italian (which I thought was Spanish at the time), I didn't have a lot of luck when I tried Google searching like crazy to find the song. I was obsessed with finding it - searched repeatedly over the course of several days - no luck.
I went for a haircut today - which was literally a 15 minute appointment 'cuz I'm letting it grow a bit so all she needed to do was do a little touching up - and as soon as I sat in the chair, I told her about my quest for the song I heard last time I was there. I described the chorus of the song as I remembered it - and she said 'I know what song it is, I think'. She got her phone, played it - and sure enough! There it was!! Chills again - and thrilled to know what it was.
I've been obsessing about that song for four weeks and hearing it again - can only be described as pure joy. I always feel so darn blessed to have music that just brings me to my knees - how much I just treasure finding songs I love - usually, it's the lyrics - but this song is just a combination of catchy chorus, soaring vocals and two cellos in the background. It's breathtaking.
To me. Right? Because you may listen to it and be all sorts of 'meh' about it. Who knows. (The song is "Il Libro Dell'Amore" - The Book of Love. Which it turns out is an older song and has been sung by Peter Gabriel and The Magnetic Fields, to name a couple). The version I love is the one by Two Cellos featuring Zucchero.
Music is powerful. How much my heart warms at finding this newest obsession to play over and over is difficult to describe but how overwhelmingly blessed I feel today.
I read the blog of an acquaintance who is battling cancer. She's always known her treatments weren't trying to cure her cancer - there is no chance of that. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer two years ago and started any and all treatments that would prolong her life - to have as much time as possible with her family - including 4 children ranging in age from 20 to 3 (today). She shared she'd read her daily devotional and burst into tears as she approached an appointment where PET scan results would be discussed. She thought maybe God was preparing her for bad news. The news was OK - no huge changes good or bad - and in her case, that's 'good' because staying even is fine.
She said she is choosing joy - which shouldn't be confused with happiness. Happiness is often based mostly on circumstance while joy comes from whatever floats your boat. In her case, it's her deep faith and closeness to God.
Joy for me these days is enjoying this amazing home with all the beautiful nature that surrounds us. Music to sing along with when traveling on the road for whatever - a haircut or a trip to Atlantis. Joy is now also including what is going to be a truly beautiful backyard - and then nightly visits from rabbits and birds. (We are pretty sure rabbits visited last night because some of the flowering plants are flowerless. I can't be mad at bunnies eating flowers. Really. I can't.).
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