Aprons, Heels, and Yoga Pants

It’s not silly to mourn the loss of an artist whom I never knew.

The artist known as “Prince” died yesterday. Today I am listening to his music non stop, all day long. I am mourning this man I never personally knew….and I think it makes sense.

I’m not literally grieving the person….I’m grieving a piece of my youth disappearing. He, along with many other artists, were and have been part of my life’s soundtrack. Our soundtracks are formed early, and those early songs are very important to us. The music we listened to helped shape us, helped us discover things about ourselves, and was always there when we needed it. Spinning records, fast forwarding and rewinding cassettes to get to our favorite songs. Or how about, holding the cassette recorder up to the radio to record?

We could count on a deep soul searching song when we just needed to cry over a broken heart. Then we could count on a rockin’ I’m going to take on the world kind of song to pick us back up. In some ways the teenage years were like a constant musical…..each emotion defined by a song.

So along with Prince, goes a bit of my youth. There will be more losses to come, unfortunately – that’s life. But as long as I am alive I’ll keep tuning in to my personal soundtrack. I’ve added new songs as I’ve aged, but nothing stirs up the young, passionate girl in me, like those first ones that spoke to me and seemed to know my heart even though we’d never met.