Midlife Musings

Fortysomething. If my life were a TV show, that would be the title, and these are the episodes. Or maybe I am just having an episode.

Everything they don't put in the brochure for your 40s. Work situations that make your blood boil, body changes nobody prepared you for, pop culture opinions held with unreasonable conviction, and the general absurdity of being a grown woman who still hasn't figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. Honest, unfiltered, and occasionally petty in ways that are entirely justified.

  • Music roulette 4 - the latchkey shuffle
    Midlife Musings

    Music Roulette 4 ~ The Latchkey Shuffle

    Research shows that the level of personal enjoyment, not whether the music is happy or sad, is what matters for potential therapeutic benefits. This is an important distinction for me because music for me is all over the place. Symptom of my Gen-X-aphilia. If you’ve missed some of the earlier installments, you can catch them here, here, and here. I’m all about the self-healing and showing improvement of any depressive symptoms. Let’s see what we get this time around:

  • Deep Thoughts - What If I Made It Worse
    Midlife Musings

    Deep Thoughts: What If I Made It Worse?

    One time when we were living in Virginia, I bought a stranger a bus ticket. I don’t know what possessed me, and to this day I wonder if I actually helped that person? You’re supposed to wonder about the small things other people do for you that you can never pay back. But what if instead we wonder about the things we do for other people that we never hear about again?

  • Music Roulette 3 - 120 Minutes
    Midlife Musings

    Music Roulette 3 ~ 120 Minutes

    I set the shuffle loose again, and this round of Music Roulette resurfaced some deep, deep memories. An even more uncurated playlist than the first round or the second. I read somewhere that music and smells are tied to memories in the brain. That hearing one or smelling something specific will trigger the recall. They say the same thing about trauma, in particular about PTSD. That you’re not recalling the trauma, but instead your body is reliving it. Music can elicit strong emotional responses, too. Let’s see which way this one goes.