Broken Record

Although I was born in 1980, I do have many memories of listening to music on LP records. And with the ballads of Patsy Cline or the rock of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, came the inevitable popping sound as the needle met a scratch mark. If the needle jumped outward to the groove it just finished playing, it would repeat in an infinite loop, serving as the simile for things that continuously repeat ("like a broken record"). Sometimes I feel like my heart palpitations are like this "broken record." It's like for whatever reason, the pacemaker hits a groove and gets stuck. So my heart will be dancing in a perfect beat, and then the stressors of life scratch my vinyl heart. The pacemaker tries to make up for the missed beats and jumps ahead. And if I don't relax, my heart will start skipping in an infinite loop. Then I get up and take action (just like I did when I had to pick up the record player's needle and manually move it forward) such as deep breathing or a brisk walk, and then my heart goes back to its steady beat.