"The souls of men and women, impassioned all. Their voices climb and fall; battle trumpets call."

(Title quote: 10,000 Maniacs, Verdi Cries)

It has been quite an eventful week. There are big changes in store at my (main) workplace today. The changes are for the better, but are still scary, as most change seems to be. We are uneasy with the unfamiliar. I will relate more of these changes after they have occurred, since a story is easier to tell by far once the events have unfolded.

I am sure my last post was polarizing, if it was noticed at all. What I am working on currently is much more personal and much less controversial.

"I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality." - H.A. Overstreet

In writing something more personal, I realize that I risk writing something less accessible. I am okay with that. When something needs to be written, it will make that demand in the brain until it is on the page. This has been making its demand to be written for over a week now, so I must begin it.

"Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What will follow, in the next few days, is a series of posts (I'm not yet sure how many it will take... my original thought was to do it in a single post, but as I explored what I want to write, it grew into a series of posts, at least two, maybe more) in which I will share the albums which have affected me the most in my life.

I want to share the CD's in my collection that have captivated me and worked their magic on my soul. I will be sharing them in chronological order of when I discovered them. I have trimmed my list down to 10 albums. The earliest album on the list, I was introduced to at age six, and the latest, I discovered only about a month ago.

So, I will be working on these posts, sharing how this music affected, and still affects me, sharing a piece of my musical soul, if you will, and posting them over the next few days. I hope to finish the first of them sometime within the next 24 hours. I hope you enjoy my musical self-indulgence.

"Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought." - E.Y. Harburg