love language of songs

The 5 love languages are legendary by now.

Today I reflected there maybe a 6th... that of music.

I guess it wouldn't merit a separate category and could fall into gift or service but it feels nice to say I share the love language of music with a friend or child.

When my phone fell into a lake the day before a 5-hour drive and needed to be wrapped in rice in coma mode for it to recover, my daughter downloaded songs she thought I would like into my husband's phone, for me to make it thru the 5 hour windy drive down the hills of Munnar. As I listened to the songs she had compiled me, which included songs she and I both liked, as well as songs she thought I would like even if she doesn't, my heart filled with both music and love. 

I have two friends I've known since forever, like since I was 12 and 16, so that's like 35 years give or take. Our youth and friendship was marked by our mutual love for music, for Illayaraja and S P Bala and Chitra and so many more. Songs for sad days, happy ones, romantic ones. We'd give one another cassette tapes of songs recorded from the radio then haha, waiting for the song to come, praying the dee jay doesn't speak in the middle, and then press play and record together, song after song, with a single tape taking months to make. I kept those tapes for ages, and even now when I hear one song I'm mentally ready for the next song in my collection, even when some were recorded halfway and whatnot. 

Recently one of my friends revived the tradition, sharing with just the other two of us specially curated volumes of songs thru Spotify. He even created a separate email account for me and added me as a family member so I could listen to the playlists! And what joy these songs bring me.. I appreciate not only the individual songs but the way they flow one to the other and most of all his gesture in compiling and sharing with the two people he knows will appreciate it as a gift like none other... a secret bond that recalls instantly spaces and scents and tastes of an earlier time for the three of us, in JC, at Macs mugging for exams, at the beach and so much more.

Yes , so today I wanted to write about the precious love language of music that I share with best friends and  children. I'm listening to one of the playlists even now and smiling on my way home!