The Music is In You

"After running all my life, one foot in front of the other -- mechanical, rhythmic, i stop. I've ben responding to a conductor, frantically orchestrating Beethoven's symphony where crescendo bars lead to more crescendo bars. The black notes that fill the music sheets are like tasks in my life. Hitting all the notes at one time, creating a dissonant chord. The conductor turns the page.

Ahh ... the second movement. Adagio. But first a pause. In that moment, I stand amidst old majestic trees. The redwood forest. It's dawn. I am at the center. Around me are paths? Which path do I take? Where will it lead me? What if I take the wrong path? Will it lead me back to this moment? I hear a voice "you can never have this moment again." You have strings of moments. Moments are like individual notes in a chord, like one string on a guitar or a cello, connected to other moments but unique on its own. Together music is created. But that chord, that music is unique to the creator of the chord, and to everyone who hears it. Vibrations of the sound, reflect and deflect with your vibrations, your energy. You absorb what you are ready to absorb. The rest you deflect into the universe. It is always out there, in a different form, and comes back you, in a new moment. Each path before you, are pebbles of moments. Each pebble, each twig is a message.

Listen with your heart. See with your heart. Life's journey is not about that leads you from point A to point B. Life is not a straight path. Our journey are concentric circles. We repeat the outer rings as often as we need to, until we experience it with seeing, with knowing, with being. Each of these paths before you connect with each other. They extend outward and come together in concentric circles, like a labyrinth.

The beauty of the forest isn't out there. The beauty of the forest is within you.
The conductor isn't out there. The conductor is within you.
The music isn't out there. The music is in you.

Each moment is music. You are the creator, and you are the listener."

- Marilou Chanrasmi (Journal Entry, 1/17/2006)

Four years later as I reflect back on my journal entry from 2006, I would add:

Listen with your heart. See with your heart.
Listen with your body. Be with your body.
Listen with your spirit. Soar with your spirit.

The music truly is inside each and every one of us.

[Photo image from Flickr]