TFW a Song Stops You Cold

I was short on my word count for the day and scrambling to get more of the story down. We'd finished dinner and the Big Guy turned on the television. The Masked Singer is on. LeAnn Rimes is singing, but I’m powering on with the work in progress until the song she’s singing sneaks it's way into my brain and triggers me. I’m immediately sucked out of The Zone. 

The impact was instantaneous - it made me cry. How Do I Live Without You took me back to "my grand adventure," when my life was at a crossroads. The funny thing is that I wasn't very familiar with the song or the artist (Trisha Yearwood, when I heard it) or even the genre (my country music knowledge is limited), but a good friend of mine had a Trisha Yearwood CD which included another song that goes hand in hand. That friend helped shape my life in ways I'll always be grateful for. You might even say that person saved my life, and that song will forever be a part of that memory.

A song can take me back to the lullabies my mother used to sing to me. I remember singing them to my children and, like a recent video I watched, I remember my babies trying to sing them with me before they could talk. 

I remember the song that was playing when I got my first kiss. I suspect the boy remembered it, too, because he commented on it at the time. 

I remember the song that used to motivate me when I was on the tennis team in high school. 

I remember whole soundtracks from my relationship with my first love, and one song we sang together that tied our hearts together - at least for a time. 

And there is a song that I relate to the man I married. 

That's the thing about music. Once it's tied to a memory or a feeling, it can immediately transport you back to a moment in time, to a special place. Good and bad. At least for most people. 

I've used the music connection in my writing (GATHERING MIST). The main character goes to a summer festival and is caught unaware when she hears a musician performing a song he wrote for her years ago. The impact was immediate, taking her back to happier times, another life. Because sometimes that's what it feels like, right?

Do you have a trigger song? One that puts you in another time and place?