Blog by: Lata Advani Viseu

“Some of their dreams came true
Some just passed away
And some of them stayed behind
Inside the Sad Café”
The Sad Cafe – Eagles

I remember listening to “The Sad Café” by the Eagles a zillion times as a teenager. It has been many years since I last heard this song and I had forgotten about it but as I was searching for a song for my blog, I came across it again and it felt like I had found a long-lost friend.

I always loved music and I remember buying vinyl or records, as they were called then, where I grew up. I remember later switching to tapes which I listened to over and over again, then spent hours trying to untangle them when they got stuck in my tape recorder.

Music has always been a part of my life, especially growing up in Shillong, where music was so much part of the culture. I always thought anyone who could play the guitar was so cool and wanted to learn how to play the guitar someday.

I few years ago I tried learning how to play the guitar from my daughter who taught herself a few songs, but I quickly realized it was not as easy as it looked, so I am even more in awe of those that make it look so easy.

Songs are like old friends to me. Some will stay in my heart forever even though I don’t listen to them all the time. Then there are songs that I love for a while and then I forget about them. They are like good friends that were there for a reason or a season then are gone.

When a certain song plays on the radio, it can take me back through memory lane to happy times or to a time when I felt like I was drowning in sorrow. Music can lift you up or bring you down if you let it.

This week a baby was born and in the same week someone dear to me passed away. The cycle of life continues, and I go on listening to music old and new, reminiscing about days gone by and creating new memories too.

Sometimes I find it hard to make sense of it all and other times it is so clear to me that to stay sane and happy I must stay in the present. I cannot change the past and I cannot control or predict the future. There is only NOW.

We are all here for a short time so let’s live life to the fullest. Let go of expectations, regrets and things you cannot control. All you have is now and how you live it is what is going to get you to your future. What you think, do or believe today is the future you create for yourself.

Create happy memories, good memories wherever you go.

Here are some songs, artists, bands that brought back memories for me as I was writing this blog. Which songs are on your list?

• Rod Stewart – I was only Joking
• Uriah Heep – July Morning, Wizard
• Dire Straits
• Moody Blues
• Eagles
• John Cougar Mellencamp
• Bruce Springsteen
• Arcade Fire
• Coldplay
• Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
• Lady in Red
• Gerry Rafferty – Right Down the Line, Baker Street
• Smokie – Living Next Door to Alice
• George McCrae – Rock Your Baby
• Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb, Wish you were here
• White Snake – Here I go again
• Norwegian Wood
• Creep

“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.” – Baruch Spinoza

“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Anderson

“How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our fears, our highest aspirations?” – Jane Swan

“The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.” – Thornton Wilder