Tuning In

As I slid into a fast-food restaurant booth to do my daily writing, the intro to “I Love You Just the Way You Are” sifted down to me from the overhead speakers. I paused, drank in the melody, the lyrics, the way Billy Joel’s voice crooned “don’t go changing” and then intensified to sing of “unspoken passion.” The music first claimed me, then began to work transformative magic in my dry and weary soul. It opened me to a reality within my daily reality: to a world deep and true and hopeful.

This month we can gift ourselves simply by tuning in and attending to the magical alchemy of music: to guitar riffs and violin solos, to heavy backbeats and to airy melodies, to major chords and to minor. We can treat ourselves as we ride or drive, as we vacuum or launder, even as we (shudder) shop.

What’s your experience of music? What kinds of music do you enjoy? Why?