Date: 2016-02-29
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Miles today: 0.0

Continued...Mighty to Save ¢ This 2006 worship song was released by Hillsong Church, although I¢m going with the Hallal Music version. As a hiker, I love the line, ¢Savior, he can move the mountains¢ although I really just want him to help move me over the next mountain. The song reminds me of God¢s love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. It also reminds me that, despite my fears and failures, I need to try to let my light shine¢¦to help and encourage others whenever I can. If I don¢t do that on the AT, it will have been a failed walk, regardless of how far I go.Home ¢ This 2012 song was the coronation song for American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. According to co-writer Greg Holden, ¢the song is about a friend who was going through a very difficult time, and it was his way of reaching out and saying that ¢you know someone's here for you¢".When I hear this song each morning, I¢ll think about Janet. As a highly mobile military family and now full-time RVers, we think of home not so much in terms of brick and mortar, but relationships and experiences. I¢ll be motivated to finish the trail to see her, because to me she is ¢home¢¢¦at least until I get to the home sung about in the Revelation song.As a thru-hiker, I also find meaning in the lyrics, ¢As we roll down this unfamiliar road¢¢¦and ¢just know you're not alone.¢ Later, he says, ¢Don't pay no mind to the demons they fill you with fear. The trouble¢it might drag you down. If you get lost, you can always be found.¢ So I¢ll think of my wife and remember that she¢s right there with me in spirit. If I keep walking, and block out the ¢demons¢ of fear and doubt, I¢ll eventually find my way back to her¢¦to home.Mirrors ¢ Justin Timberlake recorded this song in 2013 for his 20/20 Experience album. According to JT, it¢s a love song about a person's other half and is inspired by the marriage of his grandparents. He said, "One of the most valuable things in a relationship is being able to constantly change and be individual, but look to the other side to the person that you're with and know that they're changing as well individually, but somehow you two can mirror each other and be the other half of that world that you both create."That is really cool and deep and meaningful, but honestly, I just like the way the song sounds. Rolling Stone critic Jon Dolan describes Timberlake's singing on the song as "replete with laidback soulfulness, mountain-climbing croon and falsetto butter.¢ Falsetto butter? Did he just call JT margarine? I have no clue what that means but I think I agree with it¢¦especially the mountain-climbing part! All I know is this song became popular as I was training for the Disney Marathon, and it got me through the final mile on many, many training runs in and around the Fishhawk subdivision of Lithia, Florida.Beautiful Day ¢ My first experience with U2 music was listening to Sunday, Bloody, Sunday in my friend Jeff Goss¢ car as we drove to school and around McGuire AFB, NJ during our senior year of high school. Windows rolled down. Music blaring. Yes, that was us. By the end of the year, the lyrics ¢how long, how long must we sing this song?¢ began to take on new meaning. Although that song is a classic 80s song, I instead went with the more recent Beautiful Day. Lead singer Bono explained that the upbeat track is about losing everything but still finding joy in what one has.On the Appalachian Trail, I will temporarily lose an awful lot, but not everything. This song will remind me that no matter how bad the day may seem (weather, hunger, homesickness, etc.) it can actually be a beautiful day if I look for the joy in it. Psalm 118:24 states, ¢This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.¢ In fact, if (when) I start whining, I hope someone out there will remind me it¢s a beautiful day.Don't Stop Believin' ¢ For starters, Journey¢s Escape album came out in 1981 at the height of my music listening teen years. It would become my most listened to album of my high school years, a title held by Styx¢ The Grand Illusion during my middle school years. Escape was the first album that I remember thinking that every song on it was really good. While loudly singing Open Arms alone in my room as a 9th grader, I realized just how bad of a singer I was. Even the dog walked out.Steve Perry was inspired to write Don¢t Stop Believin¢ while on tour in Detroit in 1980, staring out a hotel window at 2 a.m. Perry said, ¢I was digging the idea of how the lights were facing down so that you couldn¢t see anything. All of a sudden I¢d see people walking out of the dark, and into the light. And the term ¢streetlight people¢ came to me.¢Anyway, I jammed to Don¢t Stop Believin¢ as a high school student. Then, thirty years later, I watched my own students at Foundation Christian Academy jam to the same song as part of a campus-wide lip dub. Thus, the song reminds me not only of my high school years but the fun that I had teaching and getting to know the youngsters at FCA.To Be Continued...