The L❤️VE List

Songs are a lot like smells.

They have an incredible ability to transport us to another time and place.

A year or so ago, I was walking through a mall when I passed a man wearing the same cologne my husband used to wear when we were teenagers.

In an instant, I wasn’t standing in a mall anymore.

I was sixteen years old again.

Back when we would sit in my car for hours talking, laughing, kissing, and getting to know one another the way young people do. I remember going home and still smelling his cologne on my face.

Music does the same thing.

One song can bring back an entire season of life.

A memory.

A feeling.

A moment you haven’t thought about in years.

My husband and I actually have two playlists together.

One is called Our Faves.

The other is called L❤️VE.

They are not the same thing.

The favorites list contains songs we enjoy listening to.

The L❤️VE List contains pieces of our life together.

The idea really began around 2008 when I got an iPod. Before that, there were already songs we returned to again and again. Songs that reminded us of being young, of specific memories, and of different seasons of our lives together.

The playlist didn’t create those memories.

It simply gave them a home.

Over the years, we’ve continued adding to it.

The songs themselves have very little in common. They span decades and genres. Some are old. Some are newer. Some remind us of a specific trip, a moment, a challenge, or a celebration.

The one thing they all have in common is that they remind us of us.

Our wedding song is on the list.

It was Could I Have This Dance by Anne Murray.

The funny thing is that my husband hates dancing.

Not dislikes it.

Hates it.

That wedding dance was the only dance we have ever had.

Thirty-Six years later, I still smile when I hear it.

The playlist has become something else over time, too.

When we get angry with one another or have an argument about something, instead of sitting in those feelings, one of us usually puts the L❤️VE List on the Bose and cranks it up.

Before long, our expressions begin to change.

Somber turns into smiles.

Smiles turn into soft glances at each other.

And sometimes those songs lead to us singing right to one another.

By this point in our relationship, we know that one disagreement isn’t bigger than forty-one years together.

We’ve shared too much life for that.

We’d rather find our way back to each other sooner than later.

A song comes on and suddenly we’re remembering a road trip, a vacation, a season of life, or a memory we had forgotten.

The little things we’re irritated about somehow seem a lot smaller.

Listening to the L❤️VE List reminds me how much life we’ve shared together.

How much we’ve been through.

How many wonderful experiences we’ve had.

Music has become part of our everyday life together.

My husband always listens to music in the shower.

When he comes walking out with a towel wrapped around his waist, singing one of the songs from the L❤️VE List, it always makes me smile.

More often than not, he heads toward wherever I am instead of going to get dressed right away.

Just for a few seconds.

A smile.

A lyric.

A quick hug or kiss.

A moment of connection.

The teenage boy I met all those years ago would never have sung out loud.

The man he became does.

And I love that.

My family always sang.

His didn’t.

Somewhere along the way, he changed.

Now, on road trips and Saturday mornings, he sings right along with me.

Some songs have parts that he sings.

Some have parts that I sing.

Some we sing together.

And some we sing only to each other.

Much to the embarrassment of our children.

After forty-one years together, no single song could ever tell our story.

There are too many memories.

Too many chapters.

Too many versions of us.

The songs don’t tell our story.

We do.

The L❤️VE List simply helps us revisit it all.

One memory at a time.

🌿Reflection

Every relationship has a soundtrack.

Sometimes it's made up of the songs playing during life's biggest moments.

More often, it's the songs that quietly weave themselves into ordinary days.

The one you always sing in the car.

The one that makes you laugh.

The one that instantly brings back a memory.

Years from now, those songs won't just remind you of the music.

They'll remind you of the life you built together.

🌿A Gentle Invitation

If you don't already have a Love List, consider starting one.

Or sit down with your partner and ask,

"What's something we could create together that would become uniquely ours?"

It might be collecting a Christmas ornament from every trip.

Pressing flowers from places you've visited together.

Keeping a shared journal.

Taking a walk every Sunday morning with no phones.

Watching the sunrise every New Year's Day.

Snapping a goofy "we made up" selfie after you've worked through a disagreement.

Or simply adding songs to a playlist that becomes the soundtrack of your life together.

The tradition itself isn't what matters.

What matters is creating small moments that help you reconnect—after disagreements, during busy seasons, while you're apart, and through all the ordinary days in between.

One day, you'll look back and realize those simple traditions quietly became part of your love story.

You are always welcome here

🌿WGG