Jazz, Hymns, and Patsy Cline

I love to listen to music. My favorite app to use is Pandora. I set up stations on Pandora off and on for the past few years. And one thing I've noticed is that I have very eclectic tastes in music.

I have stations for classical music and easy listening jazz. I have a Patsy Cline station and old-time gospel. I have Canadian Brass and Zydeco stations as well as several contemporary Christian stations. And, of course, soundtracks and other instrumentals. Apparently I have a musical multiple personality.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for a particular type of music. Sometimes I need "no words" for less distraction. Sometimes percussion just fits my mood.

Today I put Pandora on shuffle. It will shuffle through the stations I have chosen from selection to selection. I turned off the Christmas stations (yes I have several) but let all the others stay in the shuffle. So I jump from a Trumpet Concerto to Benny Goodman to a choir singing "Holy Ground" to E.T. movie soundtrack. Of course, I can forward to something else if something comes on that I don't want to hear. But I like the unpredictability and surprise with the different genres butting up against one another.

While there is joy in music itself for me, I have been enjoying the unexpected. So often in my life I want to avoid the unexpected. I want things to be more predictable and more controllable. But the music today is helping me think about how much life is more enjoyable when I embrace surprise and a little chaos. After all, life seems more chaotic than controllable.

And I can discover some similarities between Patsy Cline and Mandisa.

Today's Joy: Multiple genres of music with surprising connections