Smile-breaks
M is for music
And boy! Are there lots of kinds of music! Songs for the soul, jazz for the—um, the jazzy? be-bop for the boppers, grand classics for the classy, and on and on. Meaning I've run out of clever ways to put it, so I'll leave it there.
God—or whomever you think created us all—sure knew what he was doing when he gave us music. The birds, they know, with their chirps, tweets, toodles and those lonely hoots, and the crickets give out in the evening, strumming their wings, filling our nights with their chittering.
I had my piano tuned the other day and the tuner, Nick, played a beautiful number after he got all the keys and what not in shape—beautiful enough to rekindle my interest in sitting on the piano bench and doing my best to make happy sounds or play tunes with an irresistible beat or oh, those songs that remind me of days in my childhood. My dad playing the upright and we kids dancing around the living room to the rollicking music before skipping off to bed to the tune, "Merrily we roll along…"
Paul—you know Paul—loves singing to whatever music is blasting out or smoothly telling of love. Music—namely the KISS band—got him through a rough time in his life with cerebral palsy, banging two wooden drumsticks on the lid of a big tin canister in the wee hours of the night to let out his frustrations at being teased at school, and all the limitations of having a disability.
You probably remember times when music helped you get through a rough patch, or gave unexpected joy to an evening. Luckily, God also gave us ears to hear with. And a heart to feel with. Because music isn't just for the ears; it fills our whole beings with zest or melancholy or love or all of them at once. And more. . .
And the music-makers! The musicians. Thanks be for every one of them. What would we do without them? Life would be dull without the toe-tapping melodies, the swelling crescendos of majesty, no rhythmic beats of drums. Noexcuse to go out for an evening of music and drinks with friends to wipe awaythe cares of the day, and the days to come.
May you have music to soothe your soul or lift your spirits or commiserate with your sorrows. . .