Your Soul Thinks in Music, Your Brain Thinks in Words

A place I once frequented to hear live music had drink coasters for a time that made me stop and think. They said, “Your brain thinks in words, your soul thinks in music.” I had an epiphany when I read that. I thought to myself, Oh my gosh! Yes! This is so true! I loved it so much, one (or five) of those coasters may have ended up in my purse and then framed on my wall as a daily reminder of this delightful wisdom.  

I listen to music a LOT. I always have and can thank my parents for this. I grew up listening to music. They would have friends over on weekends and played albums into the wee hours. They were replayed in the morning when I was assigned to help with clean up. I learned to love music from this early exposure. As I blossomed into a teen, I developed my own taste in music, however, it wasn’t that far off from what I listened to as a youngster. I found comfort and solace in the lyrics, and, of course, the music itself; the pianos, the guitars and the voices.

I was listening to music last night. It was late, I had been writing and playing some sentimental favorites. I reminisced about the music my son Ben and I would listen to while

making the three hour drive to my grandparents’ lake home. I then played a handful of songs he would happily belt out at the top of his lungs while listening to his playlists on MySpace. The lyrics got to me. Some of them I had not really heard until after Ben died. I heard them,

I had just never listened to what was being said.

Tim McGraw’s “Don’t take the girl” was one of those songs. Ben sang it often. He was always protective of his friends that were girls, and of his actual “girlfriends,” but this one applied in a special way to his high school sweetheart. I sang along many times to this song, but didn’t make it to the last verse until several years after Ben died. The first time I listened I gasped as tears filled my eyes:

Same old boy, Same sweet girl, Five years down the road
There's gonna be a little one and she says it's time to go.
Doctor says the baby's fine, but you'll have to leave
'Cause his momma's fading fast and Johnny hit his knees and there he prayed,
"Take the very breath you gave me, take the heart from my chest.
I'll gladly take her place if you'll let me, make this my last request,
Take me out of this world, God, please don't take the girl"

This epitomizes Ben’s selfless sacrifice and what he was willing to give. I can’t help believe there was a deep instinct or intuition that caused him to sing this song with the soulful emotion he did. Did he know he would one day literally give the heart from his chest to save a life? Was it his brain or his soul? The words or the music?

Dating way back to 1982, music has kept me company throughout my grief journey. Sometimes my friend, sometimes stirring emotions that pour down my face. It is said that our sense of smell evokes more memories than our other senses. Music has the same power. Hearing certain songs can make me feel like I’ve traveled in a time machine to places I had forgotten, or, perhaps, still cherish? Soul or brain?

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

Music can speak for us when we can’t conjure up the right words. Songs sing our life stories, from the lullabies we knew and learned as children to the heartfelt melodies chosen to honor us at our funerals. The dash between the day we are born and the day we get called Home is essentially filled with the music of our life.

I have sang and danced til the morning a time or two. Music has fed my soul in my kitchen, on lakeside docks, alone in my room, on the back roads of our beautiful America, in church, at weddings, funerals and so many other places along the way. A thousand million songs I have sung in my life, some of them a thousand million times, because, when I do, my soul sings too.

When asked about her passion for singing, Melissa Helser, who partners with her husband and the christian band Bethel Music, said, “You can “sing” a prayer one thousand times, but you can only “say” it once. I love that. Of course you can repeatedly say a prayer - in words.

The power of a prayer is magnified when you sing and add music. I have spent untold hours with music. Choosing it over tv is a no brainer for me. At times I choose it over people, too.

“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” - Johann Sebastian Bach

As Bach states above, I will add, if not one, then the other.

YOUR BRAIN THINKS IN WORDS, YOUR SOUL THINKS IN MUSIC.