On 27 June 2015 I turned 50, so, throughout the last year in my 40s, I made a list of songs to bring with me into the future. These are songs that I have collected in my first 50 years of life, songs that in the future will make me feel alive, and give me a purpose to still dream and let my imagination fly.

It is not as if it worried me to get old, but turning 50 was a milestone nonetheless. So, a few months before turning 49, in preparation for my fiftieth year on earth, I started to take care of certain things, such as having a physical, organising my finances, etc. Things I did not want to deal with, or worry, around my 50th.

However, I was in search of something unique to do before turning 50, something to keep me occupied for a year, a sort of build-up to my birthday.

Right around the time I turned 49, I was reading a book by Jane Pauley called Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life. On chapter eleven, Packing for a Long Trip, Pauley talks about the things that figuratively we want to pack and bring with us into the future. Things that will help us shape our future. The things that will make us look forward to being 70, 80 or even 90. Jane Pauley quotes columnist Cary Tennis from Salon.com, who, among many things, talks about having in your suitcase a song that gives you goosebumps.

I happened to read that chapter while on an elliptical machine at the gym, on the very morning of my 49th birthday and thought it would be a neat little project to take on. I was going to collect my favourite songs and make the ultimate playlist for the future, that was going to be my project.

I took the over 7500 songs in my iTunes library and organised them alphabetically by album into four playlists. The plan was to listen to the playlists during the day. Then, every night I would choose the song that for whatever reason touched me the most during the day. If there were other songs I liked, I would put them on a new playlist to be revisited after listening to the original playlists.

After six months of collecting songs and writing about them, I decided to share the list.

As 26 June 2015, the eve of my 50th birthday came to an end, I packed the last song in the suitcase. I was ready to continue my journey.

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You can start reading at the very beginning, Week O1, or start with the last post.

NB. Entries for this blog were written and published between January and December 2015.