This blog was inspired by a comment I wrote on Corey’s blog from last week.

I find it interesting how music can influence our memories. The early years after my divorce were, in my memory, a particularly dark and challenging time in my life. My youngest daughter was not even a year old when her father and I divorced. Yet I was thrust into the position of being a single parent and going back into the working world at the same time. Finances were a daily ongoing concern at the time. As I said, I look back at it as an exceedingly bleak and difficult time.

At the time of my divorce, my children and I moved out of our home to a new town. As I was unpacked in our new home, I remember finding an old college “mix tape.” I do recall playing my college mix tape often in those years, often dancing with my daughters as the music played.

Recently, I was playing “House on Pooh Corner” on Alexa. My daughter smiled and remarked that when she hears the “Winnie the Pooh song,” and several others, she thinks back to my college mix tape. She went on to talk about how much fun we used to have dancing in the house together while the music played.

I was shocked that my daughter even remembered my college tape. But I was even more astounded that she had such strong happy memories about it. I remember that time in our lives as such a dark time. But in looking at that time through her lenses and through the music, I can now also smile. And I can remember that time a bit more like she does, filled with music and dancing.

Do you have memories that music colors?