Why is it that words can not begin to convey our human complexities of feeling, but music can touch every chord in our emotional body?
“When words fail, music speaks.” This quote by Hans Christian Andersen could easily be the heading for 2018. A year of turmoil and change on a global level; personally it has been the hardest year of my life. For many of us, there have been too many moments when trying to match impossible descriptives to turbulent emotions becomes just an exercise in futility. There simply aren’t words to be found. In those moments, your existence is confined to spaces too deep for mere syllables. When you are too raw for speech, when tears are too painful to squeeze out, or to stop flowing; when you can find no ease for the bursting of your heart….you retreat into quiet. But then silence can often be too large and lonely, so music comes to the rescue. It becomes balm for the heart and soothes the spirit…giving us much needed periods of respite.
Step outside of your confused thoughts. Find the music that resonates within your chest. Follow the pied piper rhythms of beautiful songs and sonatas to a place of comfort. Even if it is fleeting and impermanent, it is there, and it is attainable. It’s hidden away in those moments when you experience the frozen crystal winter stillness, the late night inky darkness, the pink and peach almost-dawn awakenings. It’s in those times when the world around you is so utterly perfect and mesmerizing that you are almost afraid to draw breath as it might shatter the magic. In those seconds, when you finally become aware that somehow, underneath the deep quiet, you can hear the trees singing to the stars and their twinkling replies echoing back through time. It’s the song under the silence that leads you into yourself.
*Special thanks to Jeff Hunsaker for suggesting (and beautifully playing) so many wonderful music selections that are simply perfect for this time in my life. 🙂 I appreciate it more than I can put into words….