Haydee [00:00:30]:

Well, hello there. Welcome to another episode of Voluptuous Questions. I’m so glad you’re taking this invitation of getting to know yourself better seriously. If there is one thing you and I could agree on right off the bat, It’s that music makes living better and more beautiful. Personally, I wouldn’t wanna live without music. To me, music is THAT important. It’s up there with love. And in many ways, music is love and love is music.

Haydee [00:01:03]:

If there is one feeling that we often associate with poems, which songs happen to be with the addition of a melody and a harmony, it’s LOVE. Music has the power to remind you of someone, to remind you of a certain time period in your life, to make you enjoy life to its fullest, to make you happy, to give you strength and to give you HOPE when you are sad. So let me ask you this: What is THE best musical moment YOU’VE ever had? In other words, where were you and what song were you listening to when a song took hold of your ears, your mind, your heart, and your soul? I’m asking you to think of a powerful moment you had with music. The song doesn’t have to be your favorite, and neither does the artist. As a matter of fact, my best musical moment did not include my favorite song, genre, instrument, or artist. But when I lived that moment, it made me say, WOW!

Haydee [00:02:11]:

And if I could relive a musical moment and feel the enormous power of music and the emotions that this song made me feel I would pick this moment. This question may be a little tougher to answer because probably you had never thought of this, which is EXACTLY the type of question I like to ask. To help you out, I’ll ask you more questions that you only need to answer in your head to help you answer the main question. Ready? If you’re having trouble identifying what that moment is for you, think: What song gives you goosebumps? Speaking of goosebumps, If you have Spotify or if you use any other music service, I HIGHLY recommend that you create a playlist of songs that give you goosebumps. It’s DELICIOUS having them in one spot and being able to play them WHENEVER you want. You can also ask yourself: What song made you think that time stopped? What song makes you close your eyes, tilt your head back, and let loose? What song made you think that you were in a movie and that you were the main movie star? What song was SO profound that it made you exit your body?

Haydee [00:03:26]:

And if you look back, you can actually see yourself enjoying that song even though you were fully present and immersed in that song. I know that maybe that sounded confusing, so let me explain. I often find that when we experience very profound moments in our life, the quote unquote camera through which we experience our lives shifts somewhere where we aren’t. In other words, we don’t see that moment through our eyes necessarily. Instead, you would be seeing yourself when you kiss someone on the street or running to say goodbye to someone or were crying when you said goodbye to a loved one. I’m getting teary-eyed just thinking about this. I don’t have a way of proving this, but I have a strong suspicion that these are probably the images of our life that we’ll see when we’re ceasing to exist and our life is flashing by. So if you have a memory of a song in which you may see yourself enjoying that song profoundly, then that may be the best musical experience you’ve ever had.

Haydee [00:04:29]:

Whoo! You see how effortlessly we can dive deep into our thoughts, emotions, and memories? In a nutshell. It’s HIGHLY possible that if you listen to that song that you’re thinking of again, you can experience MANY of the emotions that you felt during that moment in time. And one of those emotions is pure and utter BLISS. Let me tell you about my best musical experience. On my first cruise, I had the option of seeing a performance every night. It was lovely for me to see a different kind of show every night after a DELICIOUS dinner. One night, there was a fiddler named Billy Armstrong, who was the headliner for that evening and played songs I had never heard of in my life.

Haydee [00:05:22]:

All of these songs were country songs and most of them were upbeat. He is considered the world’s greatest fiddle player. I know that country music has some great gems, like songs from Reba McEntire or Lady A’s, I Miss You Now song, but country is NOT my favorite genre. At the end of the show, Billy Armstrong played a very slow country song called I’m So lonesome I Could Cry, which just reading the title out loud makes me get emotional. He said that this rendition of the song was a version of Hank William’s song. But, honey, from the moment the song started to the moment it ended, it took the emotion of sadness and loneliness to a WHOLE new level and pretty much made my soul cry.

Haydee [00:06:15]:

I’m not kidding you. Although I’m sure I shed more than just one tear listening to it, It was SO powerful that I felt like the music was making EVERY cell in my body vibrate. It gave me goosebumps ALL over my body. What made the moment even MORE special was that the cruise ship the swaying a little bit so it seemed that I was being cradled or rocked by Life itself back and forth, back and forth. I literally felt that time had stopped and that listening to this song was ALL that mattered. It was COMPLETELY captivating.

Haydee [00:06:59]:

The song went from having super low notes, played softly and slowly to super high notes played loudly and powerfully. It’s a masterpiece of a song. It left me SO satisfied that to this day, I don’t know the words of the song. Usually, song lyrics are what make me fall in love with the song, but in this case, the notes are SO superb that even though the lyrics are probably lovely, I’m fully satisfied simply having heard this version of the song. As soon as the show that night was over, I purchased a CD with this song because THIS song alone was SO worth the price of the entire CD and HAD to be part of my musical collection. What I REALLY want to tell you is to run and search for it, but I have some bad news and some good news. You want the good news or the bad news? The bad news? Okay. I thought you’d say that. Billy Armstrong is on Spotify, and the song is there.

Haydee [00:08:10]:

However, the song on Spotify is NOT the same as the song on my CD. The song on my CD is better. I’ll link the Spotify song in the show notes, and I’ll keep my eyes open on the internet to see if I can find the song that I have on my CD. I’ve looked for it a ton, but haven’t been able to find it yet. If I never find it, first of all, I apologize because you’re missing out, and it’s TOTALLY not your fault. And I’m TERRIBLY sorry that it’s not on the internet for me to share with you. But, if you’re EVER at a thrift store or a garage sale and you happen to see a CD by Billy Armstrong, that doesn’t have the same cover as the cover picture on Spotify, and that does have the I’m So Lonesome

Haydee [00:09:02]:

I Could Cry song on it and that probably has a Carnival Cruise Line logo on it. PLEASE buy it! I’m crossing my fingers for you that the CD you come across has that song. And then, you’ll be able to listen to and FULLY understand why I’m SO passionate about that song. Since I couldn’t find the exact song for you, can I give you a musical experience, though? Please don’t just listen to the song while you’re driving, in a busy office, while you’re doing a workout or even when you’re at home doing any chore. Instead, do this:

Haydee [00:09:40]:

Go to your room. Lock the door. Prepare the music. Put on BOTH earphones. Turn off the light. Press play. Close your eyes and do yourself a favor and just LISTEN. If you need to cry, cry.

Haydee [00:09:57]:

Just let your soul soak up the song because most likely, that’s EXACTLY what it’ll want to do anyway. Thank you for being here!!! I had SO much fun interviewing you and sharing my musical moment with you in this episode. If you also enjoyed it, can you please leave a review on iTunes? It would mean the WORLD to me! Remember, these reviews will help other people find this podcast, and that will help them connect with themselves and with us. And the more of us that there are, the more interesting life can be. Remember, you’re the star of this podcast and you’re the star of YOUR life.

Haydee [00:10:36]:

Keep shining brightly, ALWAYS.