Music (Sunday Scribblings)

Sitting down to write all the thoughts that rushed into my head at one simple word is daunting. Music is a huge part of my life.
I’ve found in life that music can mean different things to different people.
It can be a background to activity, a pick me up when you’re down, a motivator for chores or exercise…sometimes it just makes you want to laugh or cry. It can bring back memories and feeling…it even helps you learn better when you listen to it while studying or working. To me, it enhances life.
To me I think that with music, there are little cracks in your soul that music can seep through, if you let it. For me it is an escape, to revel in and let wash over me. It is the gooey honey syrup coating that washes over and saturates my gulab jamun-like squishy inner parts. I can sit for hours listening to music and if I could have a soundtrack to my daily life I would jump at the chance. There is the odd style of music I’m not into (country and hip hop) but a lot of music I like is not for you too, so it all evens out I suppose.

Over the past few years I’ve really come to find a peace and energy in music. Music has become a huge part of my life and although I can’t play any instrument (I’ve tried many and for the sympathy of those around me I’ve stopped!) I can sing rather well (I am the showertime diva). I love many kinds of music, but each for it’s own reason.

Classical is timeless...For swanky events, labwork and a good glass of wine.
Heavy music is for venting ... fordriving about with your windows down like a silly high school kid and yelling along with the vocals to vent out stress.
Jazz…it’s for the soul. For philosophizing and deep discussion of the world and life and all that sort of thing. Sexy yet smart.
Funk? Iit makes your body move. It’s sexy and sultry.
Reggae teaches you to bob your head, take a deep breath and sit back and enjoy life.
Ambient music? Well it was my greatest discovery. It’s what is playing in my head all the time, and if I’m lucky enough there’s an ambient artist out there who thinks like me and I get to hear it.
Sexy music…well it gets your mojo going...
And electronic? Well, that’s my favorite at the moment. In this genre there is some music that is only for dancing -music that flows in your mind and fills your spirit with joy and frees you so you dance and release yourself into it to be truly free. It sounds corny I know, but there are those rare times when I’m dancing that I feel like I am totally alive … Don't get me wrong. I'm a shy 30-something scientist and I don’t enhance my dancing. I don't have to -it makes me feel alive. I can't explain it any better than that. I'll leave off with a poem I wrote a while back that might just explain a bit more of how music makes me feel:

Why I Dance

There are times when the music of my heart
and the notes that swirl around in my head
slip from the decks and back into my mind,
and the sounds that fill me with happiness
fill the hearts of those around me just the same.
It is then that I dance for joy

When the music is so powerful I feel I am bound to it
as though a spell has been cast,
and I will simply wither away if I do not respond
and become one with itand immerse myself in the feeling it brings...
It is then that I dance with joy

I dance for noone else but me
and those who watch me from above;
for all the times I would not let myself be free.
I dance for all the little things that make me
glad to be alive,
feel hope for tomorrow,
and dream that I and my body are
for the moment
all there is in the universe...
And when I tire and simply cannot go on,
still the music dances around my mind,
filling all the nooks and corners
that have dimmed and cluttered with the tedium of life
and polishes them clean with vivid color:
yellows, orange, red and gold,
and all the colors of the sun and the moon,
and all there is within my soul
that beams out of my eyes
when I am at peace.

That is why I dance...
why there are times when I truly feel
I cannot do anything else.