Recap of 9th Living Out Loud project: Your theme music

This month's project was an interesting opportunity to combine the written word and melodies. So many songs I myself looked into either had the right kind of tune but not quite right lyrics or vice versa. I'm sure there's an analogy for life in there too. I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of participants this month, particularly since I myself found it much more daunting to complete than I originally thought. You all rock! Let's see what we've collected in these greatest hits.

Kim's Soundtrack Just for Now I had a feeling this project would be right up her alley, and I'm impressed that she managed to find several songs that speak to where she is right now. I had a hard time even finding one.

Gina's A Song by Any Other Name I'm pleased that now when I hear Happy Girl, I'll instantly think of her. Gina, you have become worlds more chipper since I've first known you and I'm glad this is your theme music.

Deb's The Soundtrack to Your Life This project did it's job in that most of the songs Deb listed are ones I would have never guessed were things she listened to or associated with. I just didn't know anything about her music tastes before this. And now I've listened to gems like Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

Karal's Learn to be Still I think I prefer the sentiment of her second Eagles song choice over the first one. Much less of a trapped feeling. And I love the song Brickhouse.

SuziCate's A Little Rain, A Little Peace This entry comes from Karal's friend SuziCate, renting space in her blog to share her thoughts. As a self-proclaimed "recovering control freak" I can relate to what she's talking about. All that wasted energy of worry is not easy to let go of, but I'm encouraged by her story that it's possible.

Megan's Me and my gypsy soul I admit that I've never really analyzed the lyrics of this song myself, but just know the song is inexplicably soothing. So when it comes to calming fears, perhaps that the most important aspect of music for many of us.

Laurie's Now's the Time the Time is Now I am so glad Laurie's writing more again. I thought about Closer to Fine as my own theme music as well, but I really enjoy the song she ended up choosing for a variety of reasons. Everyone should sing their song.

Nina's Theme Music ... I pondered this as well that there are so many chapters of my life that are either Before or After X (or perhaps briefly During X). Hearing about life after Z made me smile.

Rich's Let me play you a song I don't associate Rich as being very "rascally", but I do think of him when I hear this song.

Grace's Theme music Grace snuck this in after the deadline, but I'm wise to her and added her to our list of participants. :) As I told her, boating is a nice analogy for life.

And my own Letting the sun shine through: finding my theme music

As always it was hard to pick just one winner, but for this month, I'm choosing SuziCate. Her entry told a great story of how her life has changed over time and how that soundtrack changed as well. Congratulations on your first blog entry!

SuziCate will receive an iTunes gift certificate to help expand her music repertoire and find more songs that might speak to this current chapter of her life.

Thank you all again for playing along. This project continues to be a bright spot in my month. I promise to at least announce a theme for the upcoming month, unless this baby boy comes and screws up my writing schedule!