Things of Beauty #69
Let the music play
At one of the meetings I attend regularly, a different person volunteers to kick off the first 5-10 meetings with a fun activity1. We've had trivia, Mentimeter polls, and facts about Belgium (where one team member is from). Last week we built a collaborative playlist, each talking about songs we liked and why. It was awesome to hear what my co-workers listen to, learn new-to-me songs and artists, and see where our taste overlapped. Later in the week, I found myself smiling along to all the responses to this thread about music to run to over at the Half Marathoner.
So for this week's little spot of joy I'm going to share some music I love and I'm hoping maybe you'll do the same in the comments!
On repeat in my headphones:
🎶 I listened to this song so much while running on the treadmill that Spotify listed it as my top track in 2023. It's still a big motivator:
🎶 When I used to teach an online class, I'd play music each week as students logged on. I used student suggestions after the first week, but this was always the opening song on night one. Mostly because I love Sara Bareilles and it felt helpful to channel my own inner performer to bring the energy at 5:00pm on a Monday night— but it's also got a nice build to it that made it feel like a very dramatic start to the class (in a good way):
🎶 I couldn't create any list of songs without a little Counting Crows. It's super hard to pick just one song, because I'm a huge fan, but I can always get lost in this version of Goodnight Elisabeth (I love the whole live album it's on):
🎶 This song showed up on a playlist from the Life Design retreat I went to last year that was shared with attendees. I use the playlist a lot in classes and workshops and this song never fails to make me smile when it shows up in the rotation:
🎶 Another toe-tapper, dancing in my desk chair song I've loved lately from Emily King:
🎶 And finally, probably a song I feel like I directly and indirectly quote so often, because life is nothing if not a juxtaposition of high highs and low lows:
I could literally go on and on. And could have approached this with a million different themes (happy songs, sad songs, favorite lyrics, favorite beats)— but mostly I just shared the first things that came to mind as I was writing this.
Your turn now! I'd love to hear about what you're listening to. Whether that's just this week or a lifelong favorite. Share them all!
Be well, find tiny joy-
Mary Chris
Highly recommend this! Kicking meetings off with fun is refreshing and it's a great way to team build that doesn't involve standard icebreaker-y things. (Full disclosure: I love a good icebreaker, but emphasis on the good.)
When Hamilton was really big I would run while listening to "Wait for It" on a loop. Before that? Old school hip-hop and reggaeton! (It helped me to pretend I was young again and out dancing instead of huffing and puffing my way through the neighborhood. Ha!).