My 2012 Playlist

This year became a pendulum of blissful highs and extreme lows in my life. For the most part, it was shaped by fortuitous events and irrevocable choices. And the one thing that had kept me company through the difficult times is music.

Music is a beautiful art that heals. Its dynamics - the beats, harmony, the lyrics, and melody -became my daily source of happiness. Music wakes me up in the morning, teaches me to push forward, allows me to let go, makes me appreciate the tiny beautiful things around, and more than anything, it allows me to breathe through life's challenges and promises.  It urges me to just live, and to live no matter how life sucks sometimes.

Music is everywhere -- inside my room, in my workplace, while waiting in the airport, while aboard a fast craft in the middle of a wild sea, in a bus while on long night trip, and while catching a magnificent sunset beside a beach. Music needs no space and time. It travels with me. 

I know it's a little too early to list my 2012 favorites but this one can't wait.  Here are some of my personal picks straight from my own playlist. Enjoy!

1. M. Ward - Here Comes The Sun Again

"The leaves on the trees they all call out your name,
Chrome on the freight line shines the same
And the stars in their cars roll their tops down for you singing,
Here comes the sun again."

2. Jason Mraz - Living in the Moment

"Living in the moment

Living my life

Easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

I got peace in my heart

Got peace in my soul

Wherever I'm going, I'm already home

I'm living in the moment."

3. Coldplay -Yellow

"Your skin

Oh yeah your skin and bones

Turn into something beautiful

And you know

For you I'd bleed myself dry."

4. Gary Granada - Saranggola sa Ulan

"Ang pag-asa'y walang hanggan

Pag-ibig ay walang hadlang

At lilipad ang saranggola sa ulan."

5. The Weepies - Not Your Year

"Breathe through it, write a list of desires

Make a toast, make a wish, slash some tires

Paint a heart repeating, beating "don't give up, don't give up, don't give up."

6. Gus Teja - Morning Happiness

7. Rascal Flatts - I'm Moving On

"I sold what I could and packed what I couldn't

Stopped to fill up on my way out of town

I've loved like I should but lived like I shouldn't

I had to lose everything to find out

Maybe forgiveness will find me somewhere down this road

I'm movin' on."

8. Passenger -Holes

"Well sometimes you can’t change and you can’t choose

and sometimes it seems you gain less than you lose

now we’ve got holes in our hearts, yeah we’ve got holes in our lives

well we’ve got holes, we’ve got holes but we carry on."

9. Lisa Hannigan - I Don't Know

"I don't know what you smoke or what countries you've been to if you speak any other languages other than your own but I'd like to meet you I don't know if you drive if you love the ground beneath you I don't know if you write letters or panic on the phone still I'd like to call you all the same, if you want to, I am game."

10. Up Dharma Down - Tadhana

"Sa hindi inaaasahang

Pagtatagpo ng mga mundo

May minsan lang na nagdugtong, 

Damang dama na ang ugong nito.

Di pa ba sapat ang sakit at lahat

Na hinding hindi ko ipararanas saýo

Ibinubunyag ka ng iyong mata

Sumisigaw ng pag-sinta."