I have so much to say about this year’s love mix!
For those new to the HeartedS2 world, I started the annual love mix tradition in 2007. I had newly returned to NYC as a 26-year-old excited to be an adult and not a child in NYC. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for Valentine’s Day even though I find it an annoying and clawing holiday. It is a day of hope that encourages outward love and for a lover like myself, it enjoys me to be totally cringe, and also a bit melancholy.
I always talk about my first Valentine’s Day in NYC at 26. I was on the subway headed to my then job on the Upper West Side. I got off at Times Square to connect to the 1 train and as I entered the massive area where everyone was rushing to their area of the underground tunnels, there was the biggest sea of red I’ve ever seen: people wearing red coats, scarves, shoes, pants, gloves, hats, earrings, and purses. It lit me up in a way that made me feel so proud of NY and NYers who get such a bad wrap of being rude and angry. It was a larger moment of perspective change and it gave way to what is now called the Love Mix.
The legend of the Love Mix series is this: in 2007, I was looking for another way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I wanted it to be joyful and one that was inclusive of all my single friends. Music has always been a way for me to find inspiration and many of my friends were deeply entrenched in the musical world. So the first two mixes involved asking friends for their favorite love songs to include. Over the 17 year span, 15 of those mixes are direct reflections of my life - they share the story of my heart through various events that broke my heart many, many times over.
When I think about the woman who started this ritual and the woman I am today, as I sit at my desk and write this, they are the same, but the older Sara is finding her way back to the younger Sara. The 26.5 year old who was full of such brazenness and love.
Which brings me to this year’s Love Mix, titled by the band Oasis, “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” It is named after their song with the same title released on February 19, 1996 - happy almost birthday song! I knew the minute the song was playing as I drove down my street toward my apartment and parked my car, that the radio station (Fordham University’s WFUV) was giving me subliminal messages. It was the last song played on a day where I had noted several songs, that made it to this year’s Love Mix by the way, on a drive back home the Sleepy Hollow town in NY and included a stop at an Orthodox Greek church to leave a cake, I had baked several days before to help me find a bracelet I couldn’t find and though I had lost, in the forest behind it.
The first song I really noticed as I pulled out of the parking lot was the first song on this year’s mix: Isis by Bob Dylan. New to my ears, I was shocked, as I normally am when the Universe decides to present me with lessons/messages. What followed were songs that are on this mix, Carol King’s “So Far Away” and Dionne Warwick’s “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” and Oasis’s “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” There were a few more songs that I noted, but they didn’t make the cut. In the week’s after, I would hear other songs that I knew needed to be on here, “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd, or my absolute favorite, “It Will Come in Time” by Billy Preston and Syreeta. That last one was played as I was driving down toward the river to do some ritual work. I had never heard the song, but I knew in that moment I was absolutely being told a truth - it will all come in time as long as I keep working toward what I want. As long as I keep moving to the rhythm of Sara.
When I think about 2023, the year was about finding what was lost. I thought I lost a bracelet back in July only to find it wrapped around the leg of a doll on the floor in my bedroom. Completely cloaked. In order to find it, I did a ritual to a Greek Saint who is like Saint Anthony - you seek his aid when something is missing. I baked a cake, followed the nine minute/turn/day rules and found the bracelet a few days later. In the middle of that loss, I received news that left me shattered. I ended up curled up in a ball on my bed, but once I found my bracelet, I felt differently. I understood the message - some times, the things we think are missing, are simply misplaced. You’ll find it/them/whatever again, with fresh eyes and renewed hope. Nothing is ever lost, especially love.
And this is the energy as I move through 2024 - because what is in the past is in the past, but what was lost can be found. It can be rebuilt. It can be used to uplift and to do things differently. The lessons are the blueprints for the future. I’m still coming out of the dark, but I’m seeing the light. I’m craving the light. And as Isis, that beautiful goddess, I’m piecing things together - I’m piecing myself together, along with the deepest of my greatest desires, to get to where I want to be - in a life that is content and full.
I hope you enjoy this year’s Mix and that you find your strength in this universal 8 year! My blessing for you this Valentine’s Day is that you are courageous and dance through the pain and joy. The new version of you that is blossoming is waiting to meet you.
xxx. Happy Valentine’s Day!