Music can be wonderful. It can be an expression of emotion and emotion can be how we keep our sense of value and proportion close to our hearts. Emotion can summarize for us the things that we have learned by reminding us about how we felt when we experienced them. Emotions have a physical component. Anger feels different in our bodies than compassion does. Music can connect our mind to our emotion and even to how that emotion feels inside of our body. Music can enrich us with an enhanced awareness about what our state of being alive means to us.

When you feel that the world isn’t understandable and you don’t know what you should do, music can remind you of good things that you know about and care about. When we face challenges, music can inspire us and lift us up to give us a higher connection with nature and the spiritual part of the world and the spiritual part of ourselves that we don’t always remember. What we value matters. Our love of nature and of other people matters. Music can help us to be held within the embrace of this beautiful side of our experience of being alive.

I like a lot of different kinds of music. I can be taken into the beat of rhythmic sound. Sometimes the cleverness of musicians amazes me. Most of all I like being inspired to feel more when I listen to beautiful sounds in music. A talented musician finds something good in their life that they distill into potent sounds that vibrate into someone’s hearing and make their life experience better. What a great way to inspire others.

Music of course can remind us of the past when we hear music from another era. How have you changed since then? If you can remember who you were when you first heard music from the past, would that version of you understand the you of today? Was the yester-you more or less optimistic, more or less idealistic, more or less fun? Can music restore the past you to bring gifts to the present you, perhaps gifts that you have forgotten that you once had? Are your values the same as they were? What values will you invest in going forward to bring to the you of the future?

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