Ethiopian Music Always Evoke The Feeling Of Nostalgia.

Last night, listening some #Ethiopian music, brought back so many #memories from my childhood. A single song made me feel like I was a teenager again while reminding me that I am substantially older. Hearing one song that I had not heard in years evoked a sense of #nostalgia for my lost adolescence. Other sensory experiences can induce nostalgia for others but for me, nothing can induce nostalgia more quickly and easily than scent and music. However, today, music is the one which took me back to my teenage years.

I don’t think it would be presumption of me to think that we all have some songs that make our spine tingle every time they come on. The moment they come on they seem to attach themselves to our brain like parasite and the memories flood back to us bubbling. Some of the memories are good and others are bad but you know beyond reasonable doubt that the song is written in to your heart and soul. It is a trigger to inspire reflection and will forever hold this power over you. 

According Three Fold Online Dictionary, #Nostalgia is defined as ‘a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with #happy personal associations: something done or presented in order to evoke #feelings of nostalgia.

However, I want to add #Enchanting to the list because nostalgia is not as dry and simple as it sounded in the definition; there is something #magical about it. That mysterious, #unfathomable moment, where everything else halts and #fuzzy #feelings crash with a strong melody, good friends, smile, love and boom — something is burned inside you forever. 

Nostalgia does not just bring you music; it can also bring back to you, people, places, smell, touch and feelings in details. It is said that everyone can have a photographic memory if they train themselves to and I believe it because of musical nostalgia. I often don’t remember small details each day or even important dates, yet, I can remember can remember the tiniest of details from these magical moments. 

The songs I was listening to today brought back so many memories from the summer that I turn 14.  This particular summer my friend and I did not have much money but we had plenty of time; time to walk around the city doing nothing; time to talk and party;  time to get in trouble and time to rail against authority when it came down on you after you flex a little freedom.

We were a group of six but most of the time it was only the three of us who would hang around – My friend, my uncle and I. I cannot imagine now what we talked about from morning to dawn. Every night, when we go our separate ways, it felt like as if we had not spent enough time together. However, deep inside we know that the next day, we will get to gather and do the same thing all over again.

Our days would start with all of us having breakfast at somebody’s home, and then we would move to another’s person’s house for lunch, we would talk, sing and dance.  No topic was safe from our discussion; politics, religion, philosophy, our family, our bodies, etc.

We had so much time at our hand. It felt like we were waiting for something, feeling like we are on the cusp of something else. Sure we were waiting for school to open but at the same time we were waiting for to be discovered, to be grounded, waiting for our lives to start, waiting for something bigger, something better something different  and waited for total freedom.

The problem was freedom came so slowly that we did not realize it when we finally have it; because at the same time responsibility was dumped into the mix. Eventually, that endless summer, which we thought would last forever, came to an end. Our group kind of drifted apart. As we went to different countries and different continents, most of us did not speak to each other for many years. We tried to keep in touch through letters but after a while we stopped. My uncle passed away since and recently I started communicating with one of them but the friendship was not the same.

And one single song brought all these memories back to me. I am grateful for it. Who said you cannot go home again? I just did with music and nostalgia.   

"Sometimes it is not the song that makes you emotional, it is the people and things that come to your mind when you hear it." Unkown