大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

Today is mine and Grace鈥檚 five year wedding anniversary. Getting married in January means that every year after seeing family at Christmas we also get to have a moment to go away and celebrate as just the two of us. I don鈥檛 want to ruin the magic of Radio but I actually pre-recorded this in advance as I thought waking Grace up at 5:43am this year might not be the gift she had been dreaming of.

My favourite anniversary gift I have got Grace (so far!) was inspired by the 2013 film Begin Again. In the film Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley鈥檚 characters walk around the city listening to music together with a pair of headphone splitters, and after my friend Chris told me about this, I bought some for Grace so that we could do the same. Every year since I have made a playlist of songs that we have enjoyed throughout the year and on our anniversary we go for a walk and listen to them together. It could be anything from a reminder of a gig we both went to, an album we鈥檝e obsessively listened to in the kitchen and on road trips, or in last years case, simply our favourite song from Encanto (obviously Luisa鈥檚 song).

In previous years we have danced, cried and even laughed out loud as we relive these memories. I love music. One of the problems I have when friends recommend various podcasts to me is that I enjoy music so much I would almost always rather be listening to tunes from an artist I love or discovering something new, than hearing James from Hackney鈥檚 theories on how a serial killer might have gotten away with it. This year included even more rescheduled gigs than normal and an overdue return to Glastonbury, so think it might be the best playlist yet.

God, thank you for music. Thank you that it can move us to laughter and tears, or simply move us to movement itself. Thank you for the shared communal experience of a concert or a festival, as well at the intimate moments it can afford us in the comfort of our headphones. Thank you for the memories it helps us to make, and the opportunities we find to relive those. And while I鈥檓 at it, thank you for Grace.

Amen.