Hello and Goodbye

As we head into November, I'm feeling a change in the air.  It isn't the turning of the leaves, or the beginning of the rains.  It's not even the mid-term elections with the battle between the Tea Party-ers and the incumbents.  It's more a recognition that life has somehow reached a turning-point.  You can call it a mid-life crisis if you like, but it doesn't feel "critical."  At least not to me.  I'm watching as my younger friends debate adding another child to their brood, witnessing my almost-teen's forays into first crushes, seeing the years of hard work with my special needs child start to pay off.  I also see the darker side:  friends' cherished pets growing old and passing on, my parents' bodies on the decline, marriages beginning to fail after so many years of sticking it out for the children.  So if it's not my crisis, what is it?  It's the cadence of life, the ups and downs, the backs and forths, the hellos and goodbyes.  It's just one more wave to ride.  And here is its playlist.

1. "Game Over"- V.V. Brown
2. "Let the Day Begin"- The Call
3. "Dying Day"- Brandi Carlile
4. "Note to the Unknown Soldier"- Five for Fighting
5. "You're Dead to Me"- Dierks Bentley
6. "Even This Shall Pass Away"- Robert Plant
7. "Collect Call"- Metric
8. "If This Is It"- Huey Lewis & the News
9. "Open Arms"- Journey
10. "Are You Here"- Corinne Bailey Rae
11. "Here We Are Again"- Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers
12. "Ain't No Sunshine"- Wynonna Judd
13. "Here Comes Goodbye"- Rascal Flatts
14. "Hollywood Ending"- Edie Carey
15. "The Last Day on Earth"- Kate Miller-Heidke
16. "Out of Time"- Blur
17. "Thoughts of a Dying Atheist"- Muse
18. "Welcome to the Jungle"- Guns 'N Roses
19. "Standing Right in Front of You"- Keith Urban
20. "For Whom the Bell Tolls"- BeeGees