Today I am grateful for - Celine Dion

Today marks the release of one of my favorite singer's newest albums - "Taking Chances". I have loved Celine Dion's music since I was in jr. high when the movie "Beauty and the Beast" came out - and she sang the title song. Since then I've been hooked. In fact, her music has really carried me through growing up, and I can relate some of her songs to different experiences in my life. It's amazing how big a part music can play in our lives!

I remember hearing that song Beauty and the Beast at a jr high dance and my friends talked the boy I had a crush on into dancing with me. Yes - they had to talk him into it - he was totally not interested (good old Brad Watts....) I remember dancing with him and just feeling mortified.

In high school the song "Because You Loved Me" was a huge hit and had significance to me in a couple of relationships and the same with "It's All Coming Back to Me Now". I remember listening to that cd (Falling Into You) with my friends driving back from a football game. I totally bonded with my buddy Tim Pead over a few of those songs. Ahh...memories...

Then in college "Titanic" was a huge hit and my roommates and I would listen to "My Heart Will Go On" about a million times. I also remember there being a song on that same cd (Let's Talk About Love) that was a duet with Celine and Barbra Steisand that reminded me of how my relationship was with my current crush.

"A New Day has Come" - this song is VERY special to me. I heard it for the first time on a Barbara Walters Special 6 years ago. I remember hearing it while I was scrapbooking and I started crying - it was beautiful! I started searching the internet for it, only to find out that it wasn't coming out for months. The morning the cd came out I drove to Walmart in my jammies at like 6 am to buy it. I even wore out my copy of it because I listened to it so many times. This song got me through tough times when we were trying to have kids - because I knew someday my new day would come. I listen to the song now and it has even more important meaning. I have rocked Gabe to it, sobbed to it in the car, and felt comforted by it when I was pregnant. When Cory took me to the Celine concert in Vegas a few months before we had Gabe this was the opening song (and the name of her concert) - and as the first note played I burst into tears - but they were the happiest tears I'd ever shed - I was going to be a mother! Anyway, I look at this song as kind of an anthem for those tough years.

Then came the album "Miracle" - which also drives me to tears repeatedly. I used to sing the song "Miracle" to Gabe before he was born, and rock him to it once he came to our family. It would always calm him down when he was upset, and I wondered if he remembered it from in my belly. "You're the reason I was born, now I finally know for sure. And I'm overwhelmed by happiness, so blessed to hold you close - the one that I love most....." Beautiful lyrics - the whole album made me crave being a mother, and was a comfort to me once my children have been born.

Anyway - today I am so grateful for music, and for the impact and influence it can have in our lives. I'm grateful for the memories that a simple song can evoke, and how we often have a soundtrack to our lives. Celine is definetly one of the artists that pops up repeatedly in my soundtrack, and I'm grateful for that!