Finding Strength in Music
As I slowly climbed up the stairs for the evening, a few minutes ago, I heard the haunting music of Edvard Grieg drift down to greet me. It was my favorite piece from Peter Gynt. I paused. Strong emotions rushed through my being. They enveloped me and swept round and round my psyche. I did not know whether to cry or smile. I hesitated undecided. Finally I felt the strength of the music push me forward.
Many, many years ago, in a very difficult phase in my life, this piece of music and Handel’s Water Music were what gave me strength to carry on. That, and my love of my children. It took all my strength to do so. I remember telling myself, “You may bend, but you absolutely may not break.”
I searched for little things to make me feel good about myself. The sound of the melted mountain snow running in the jubes along the sidewalks, watering the trees, gave me such comfort. The rooster greeting the dawn each morning; the faithful tic toc of my old clock. My children singing themselves to sleep and their happy laughter as they played. Frozen snow covered a broken branch that I picked up one snowy day and brought home. I put it in water. It lived and rewarded me by forming new leaves and buds. All these things gave me joy and strengthened me. Without them, in those dark anguished days I would not have had the strength to carry on.
All of these things made me the strong person I have become.
Thank you God.