Everything Lost will be Recovered

It's 2012. Thirteen-year-old me is sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday night, waiting for a re-run of The Monkees to come on at midnight. Truly.

My sisters and I took a deep-dive into a sixties obsession, fueled mainly by the music we discovered in that psychedelic time machine. It all began with The Beatles. I'm sure my experience of discovering The Beatles as a 21st century kid and falling completely head over heels is not unique. I, however, may have taken it a step further than the average. I watched every Beatles video I could find on YouTube. I bought Beatles CDs. I even became totally into sixties fashion.

My uncle, who was thrilled that my sisters and I had fallen in love with the music he grew up with, made us a mixtape. We listened to it daily, no exaggeration.

Let it Be and Hey Jude had to move over to make room for many more songs from the sixties that joined the ranks as my favorites. The Monkees made their way to the top of the ranks, right alongside The Beatles. My uncle was a lifelong music lover. For him, sharing his favorite songs with us was like sharing a piece of his soul.

Flash-forward seven years. I'm in college. I've since moved on (for the most part) from my sixties obsession. My uncle has since passed away.

Spotify is playing in the background one day while I make lunch in my dorm room. I'm not paying close attention. But then, I hear a beautiful melody. This isn't a song from any of my playlists; I've never heard it before. Me & Magdalena. Thinking I had heard every song The Monkees ever released, I am a bit taken aback. But overall, I was enchanted. The song touched my emotions, reminded me of a time when I loved songs like this, and reminded me that my uncle was still with me.

"Everything lost will be recovered when we drift into the arms of the undiscovered."

Music from the sixties played an important role in my life. It was introduced to me in the most loving of ways, and it taught me the ways of love. I'm reminded of the cultural movements that were happening in that era, how they are not so different from the ones happening again in our modern age. The young generation in the sixties learned that love was paramount, and I hope that our generation will carry that same energy with us.

I found out later that Me & Magdalena was written and released on 2016, but to me, it feels like a song that was lost in the sixties and rediscovered. It feels like a song that the Monkees would have played while driving in their red convertible, strumming an acoustic guitar. Regardless of when her song was released, Magdalena took me back to the sixties. When I listened to the song, I connected with her. She felt so similar to me, "always leaving early and sleeping late." I imagine her wearing a bright and colorful floral dress with flared sleeves. She's sitting on the grass at Woodstock listening to a band perform.

I'm right there with her. My love for the sixties has been reinvigorated. My outfits are inspired by hippie fashion trends, I will happily binge Mad Men any day of the week, and my playlists are dominated by The Beatles, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, The Supremes, and The Temptations. The sixties was an era of love and there's a certain kind of love that got left behind in the music.

"And I don't know if I've ever loved any other half as much as I do in this light she's under."