Play Me That Tune

My Top 10 Favourite Songs
By Pandora Poikilos

I've had a blastedly horrible week, although my spelling seems to be getting better and I'm able to get more done, at the same time, as my head wounds heal there is a constant buzz in my head which has a rousing similarity to a mobile on vibrate mode, that makes me want to say, please pick up that mobile and then I realise, wait a minute, that's no mobile, that's my head. So, yes, I still have these little reminders to keep me from sprinting ahead and remembering that we all need to slow down, recovering from brain surgery or not.

Between driving Peas up some very high walls and having very little sleep, I've had to find ways of keeping myself sane and have done something most people do. I listened to my favourite songs. With my MP3 player plugged in and the rest of the world shut out, I realised that some of these songs were tunes I've been turning to for ages. And as you all know by now, being the lyrics junkie that I am, each song holds a very special meaning to me. Maybe, it'll do the same for you.

10 - Chasing Cars
Performed By Snow Patrol
Never mind that the lead singer is fly-me-to-the-moon hot, this is a song that literally makes you want to forget the rest of the world and if you have company to do it with, then all the better. As with anything in life, the ingredient that makes it all worthwhile is, support and this song speaks exactly about that. Whether you want to chase dreams or cars, I'll stay by your side, hold your hand and do it with you.

9 - Stay
Performed By Sugarland / Ronan Keating
When you hear it the first time, it's meaning is pretty straightforward - it is a choice between two lovers. One line, though, changed this for me - "I've given you my best, why does he get the best of you?" Sometimes, and I think we're all guilty of this, we become so focused on the past and how we could have made it better, we keep holding off on the present and indirectly the future. There's always the sentiment that if you do A, then we'll eventually get to B. Before long, we've worked so long on fixing A, we've completely lost sight of B.

8 - Let It Be
Performed By The Beatles
Maybe it's human nature or a female driven instinct, I don't know, but we always want to fix something that we think is broken, to right the wrong, to set a crooked line straight. We are confident that our actions can make the world a brighter place and that we're doing it in the absolutely right way without having the slightest notion that this great desire we have for fixing is actually what breaks things even more in the first place. Because really, in the ever famous words, sometimes for things to work out and to fall into place, we just need to, let it be.

7 - Don't Stop Believing
Performed By Journey
First made famous in 1981 (yes, way before some of the Glee cast were born and some others were probably still in diapers) this has always been the anthem for those who have wanted to feel unrestricted. It's words are simple and comes with the profound meaning - it doesn't matter where you are from but it is about where you are going.

6 - Fix You
Performed By Coldplay
If there were ever a song needed to pay tribute to every parent, family or best friend who practised unconditional love and opened their homes and hearts at the worst of times, then this song would be it. "Lights will guide you home" - irrelevant of your loss, mistake or misdirection, just come home and we'll take you through.

5 - White Christmas Makes Me Blue
Performed By Randy Travis (An Old Time Christmas)
For everyone who has lost a loved one, you will know the meaning of this song the instant you hear it. For many, Christmas is about getting together and joy, and yet for some others, Christmas means finding the strength to move on beyond a significant loss, to be happy again. For some, it is also the season where there open their hearts to a small ray of hope, praying that the miracle that they've needed all this while will finally become a reality.

4 - Temporary Home
Performed By Carrie Underwood
Born in a country that wasn't home, my first flight was when I was approximately 30 days old and I haven't stopped since. I did not have the privilege of getting my own room till I was 18 and the desire to stop living out of boxes in a place I want to call home is stronger than any I'll ever have. When I first heard the lines, "windows and rooms that I'm passin' through" - it touched a very raw nerve. See, not all of us want white houses and picket fences, I think I'm not stepping out of line when I say, most of us just want homes where love rules and judgement gets locked outside.

3 - I Didn't Know My Own Strength
Performed By Whitney Houston
"Lost touch with my soul, I had no where to turn, I had no where to go, Lost sight of my dream, Thought it would be the end of me, I thought I’d never make it through, I had no hope to hold on to, I thought I would break, I picked myself back up, Hold my head up high, I was not built to break, I didn’t know my own strength" - Do I really need to say more?

2 - Amazing Grace
Written By John Newton (1779) / Performed By Various Artistes
Inspired from his experiences of being a sailor in the Royal Navy participating in slave trade, this is a song that has spanned through many generations of Sunday services and grief. Having lost one parent when I was 3, I grew up despising the story of Lazarus constantly wondering why God would raise Lazarus from the dead but allow my parent to die. There were no easy answers but as I learned the words to this song - I was blind but now I see - it has taught me that what we perceive as death is actually freedom and what we perceive as blindness is actually sight but only if we want to see it this way. Sometimes we become so adamant in seeing things how we want them to be, we forget to see them as how they really are.

1 - Pearl Harbour Sucks
Performed By Trey Parker & Matt Stone
Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the movie Pearl Harbour for all its dramatic Hollywood elements. I first heard this song when I was at the brink of giving up or giving in. There seemed to be too many decisions, yet another move and even more repercussions, and everything lacked direction. And then I heard this. No, it's not an award winning tune and will probably be nowhere near a Grammy nomination but for anyone who has had that warm, fuzzy feeling of a grubby 5 year old saying I love you more than ice-cream, then this song will give you just about the same effect.