Groove and Soothe

As I sit in this cafe, I can't help but notice and think about the music playing. The atmosphere, the setting, the decor, the menu, the music... Nothing is accidental. It's creates a very specific "mood", and this said mood, found in nearly very cafe across North America, is one of my favorites. A dim to moderate lighting, hot drinks to sip, and delicious baked goods filling our nostrils as we absorb the very chill, coolness that is M. Davis, Bublé, Norah Jones, or Coltrane.

This is just one example of music and its effects on our mood. When visiting public gyms, which I also frequent, it's predictable to find high BPM dance or top 40 remixed songs with occasional flares of high BPM rock. The fast, upbeat tempo encourages us to work harder and faster while "singing along", seemingly making it more fun to workout. Music is an outside source that seems to override our already, pre-existing mood. No matter what. A question in my thought then, is why when we're sad, do we choose to listen to SAD music; making us MORE SAD. When we're down, we embrace the emotional low with slow jams, emo-rock or tearjerkers about broken hearts. Is there maybe some kind of "high" in feeling so low? A possibility that we as humans just love feeling any emotion, as long as its extreme?

Nonetheless, I prefer to focus on feel good music. I spend a great deal of my time smiling and singing to myself some beautiful melody performed in a bluesy scale, exaggerated through the brass of big band and swing, or lulled through a soft spoken voice. I think this is a major reason I'm so drawn to cafes. I do enjoy expresso/coffee/tea, free wifi and I do LOVE baked goods, but I can get those items from a local, even organic grocer for much less (or wifi at home). Cafes have become some what of a bar* for the modern crowd. A social meeting place that has been reinvented. Lose yourself in a book, enjoy the music with friends, by another round... The perfect place to come alone or with friends. for work or for pleasure. Purchase and stay. Sit and enjoy.

I listen to music from across the board with great love and passion for all of it. It's like anything else, I want to know and experience as much as possible. Music, food, culture, places people, beers, wine... The more, the better. Life for me is about variety and being well rounded. How can you pick a favorite if you haven't had them all?

As I sit here and watch the rain run down the glass of these windows, I dream of all the things out there I've yet to experience. What else is out there. What am I missing?! It excites me. It motivates me. I hope to encourage everyone with this post to do a few things:
- Try new things. Don't limit yourself based on what you know or what you've been taught, it's never too late to learn.
- sit down in a cafe and for just a moment, sit and Listen. Look. Smell. Appreciate what is happening around you. In any surrounding really, this applies.
And lastly, please remember to always
- Laugh, Learn, Love and Live.