Groundhog Day?

Ever been in a phase where you just listen to or read the same thing over and over and over? I'm there. It's kinda like my cheap form of therapy.

Currently I am obsessed with a couple of songs, I seriously have them on repeat through iTunes and must listen to each song a dozen times a day. My drugs of choice,
Imogen Heap's First Train Home and The Temper Trap's Sweet Disposition. T.O.T.A.L.L.Y O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D. I think both songs lower my blood pressure.

There have been a few songs in my life that are always my "Groundhog Day" songs. I've played them so much people actually associate me with the songs when they hear them, it's like my life on repeat. My anthem song is Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill. I've run into people I knew 20 years ago in college, we'll be sitting in a bar and Solsbury Hill will come on the radio and they'll say, "This song always reminds me of you." It's happened a couple of times, I must have played that song A LOT in my dorm. Peter Gabriel is my personal God, maybe that's why friends told me I should name my son Gabriel while I was pregnant (I didn't). Another song is Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper, which pretty much defined my life in my 20's. If I only heard those 2 songs for the remainder of my life I would still never tire of them.

Like I have Groundhog Day Songs, I have Groundhog Day Books, books I read over and over again and never tire of. Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind is one. The classic children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon is another. Nora Roberts wrote a trilogy fans call the Irish Trilogy (Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon, Heart of the Sea) set in a small coastal village in Ireland. Reading Robert's trilogy never fails to get me in the mood to travel and even believe in a little bit of magic. Anything by Jane Austen is also on my repeat list.

So what is it about music and books or even movies that makes you listen, read and watch over and over? Is it the mood they put you in? The hope or inspiration they enhance? To me they are old friends. I find a certain comfort in the familiar first notes of a song, of the mystical places a book can take me back too. I renew my belief in the power of music and the sacredness of imagination. I enjoy the memories of being in a certain place at a certain time and hearing a song I love and when I hear the same song 20 years later it's like no time has passed at all. So I'll deal with my Kid saying, "Mom not that song again" but I enjoy even more when he says, "Mom can you play the 1978 live version of Solsbury Hill again."

Here's the 1978 live version of Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill, my anthem.