The Composer

If it's possible to ask you to do something...oh anonymous individual who is reading this blog entry. We're just going to imagine in this scenario that you said yes, so let's get our headphones on and pick a nice classical radio station or playlist. Let us now embark upon a musical journey.

The piano begins to play softly...

Classical music actually was a large part of my life growing up. It is in the background of many of my childhood memories and interactions with others. Both of my parents are both classical music enthusiasts, so growing up classical music was always playing in the car radio to and from events, playdates or family outings. It was either this or the news and occasionally you just don't want to know how awful the world outside really is.

The violin starts and begins to weave in and out of the piano...

Many children grow up wishing to be rock stars, artists, doctors, or government officials. This was not my choice. I remember so vividly listening to the radio in my parents room, standing on their water bed (it was the 90's) and pretending to conduct my very own symphony. I curled up into the blankets after my 'performance' and declared very matter of factly that I was going to become a classical composure/conductor.

The music envelopes you and carries you somewhere new and different...

I am brought into my childhood kitchen with my mother. She is much taller than I am, with a radiating smile and warmth about her. She is inviting and warm, a safety that I know will always be there for me. We dance together in our kitchen as our food is cooking. She brings me onto her toes and whirls me around. The moment passes too quickly and I beg for her to spin me again, to dance the tango again. Being my mother, she does. We tango around our narrow little kitchen, laughing and connecting to each other and our created music.

It begins to fade now....

As my grandmother was ill, my family and I spent more and more time together. I spent more time out of school visiting her and attempting to fit in a lifetime of memories into the few moments that we had left. I was in the car with my sister and we had been listening to a few songs over and over again, not because they had any particular sentimental meaning to us before this moment, but after we had listened to them we realized how much these songs did mean to us. They were songs that spoke about love, longing, loneliness, and family. In the moment I didn't think that these songs would become inseparable of those moments that I had with my family during this time in my life. That they would become songs where as soon as I hear them I am transported. Now when I listen to them I am not sad although I get emotional when I hear them. I just remember how lost I felt in those moments, how endless they seemed but now looking back I realize how fleeting they were. I am so thankful to have those songs connect me back to who I used to be, so that I can appreciate who I am now.


Today though I was sitting on the balcony and listening to someone three floors below me play the piano so beautifully that it reminded me of all of these moments and then once I started thinking about these few, a thousand more flooded my consciousness. Music is everywhere in our lives and yet we are so unaware until it triggers a memory. It is like smell, music can bring you back to a certain moment in your life. You can recall exact what the world looked like to you as you heard the first notes of that one song, or the way that someone looked at you during this chorus, or how you used to listen to this song all the time with this other person. It connects us, from one to another and yet it is rarely appreciated for doing so. So as this week goes by just think about the sounds and music that are all around us and how it enables us to connect, to communicate and to remember who we are and who we can be.