Dear friends,
I've been thinking of how wonderful it is that we have the gift of song,
The blessing of music to bring brightness into our lives.
Notice how music has the power to make such a difference to us.
It can inspire us,
Energise us and it can lift our spirits.
Let's begin this session by bringing ourselves into the present moment with a one minute pause,
Just 60 seconds to bring body and mind into the same place.
Welcome back.
Music was my refuge,
I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
A quote there from the wonderful Maya Angelou.
Music has the power to lift us up when we feel down.
It has the ability to inspire us in ways which go beyond words.
The lyrics we hear often express thoughts which we have difficulty expressing ourselves.
Lyrics can say what we've been feeling inside and when they do that we know we are not alone.
Because as Aldous Huxley says,
After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
And music enables us to travel back through time and space,
Bringing us back to places and situations where we have heard a song or a piece of music for the very first time.
Melodies hold memories and enable us to travel the world without having to get into a car or a bus or a train or a plane.
In The Gift of Song,
Written by Neil Diamond in 1974,
The lyrics refer to songs that take you to another time.
I'm sure every one of us has had that experience.
At this stage I think we will have another one minute pause.
This will allow us to recall songs that bring us to another time.
A one minute pause now for time travel.
Welcome back to the present moment.
Songs that take you to another time.
What an amazing line and so true.
And speaking of songs that refer to the passage of time,
I'm sure we all remember the song Those Were the Days.
This is a song which prompts us to remember and look back with gratitude to the past.
And it reminds us that even after the passage of the years,
Our dreams are still the same.
The song Sunrise,
Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof speaks of the swift passage of the years.
It reminds us of how important it is to live in the moment.
Bringing ourselves back into the moment gives us an opportunity to use our succession of present moments to take care of other people.
These are the moments of opportunity.
These are,
As the song says,
The days of our lives.
Let's try to grab them while we can.
Sunrise,
Sunset is a type of musical encouragement to us to respond to the appeal of the Dalai Lama.
We are visitors on this planet.
We are here for 100 years at the very most.
During that period,
We must try to do something good,
Something useful with our lives.
The Dalai Lama quote continues,
If you contribute to other people's happiness,
You will find the true meaning of life.
This is the idea he puts before us,
The possibility that we can use the days of our lives to contribute to the happiness of people who walk the path of life with us.
Let's have another one minute pause for reflection.
This might be an opportunity for each of us to answer the call of the Dalai Lama and think of some good deed that we might perform in the next 24 hours.
Some unexpected act of generosity which will make a difference to someone else.
Welcome back.
Songs of our youth will always hold a special place for us.
In the musical The Student Prince,
Mario Lanza sings about golden days in the sunshine of our happy youth.
Isn't it amazing how even many years later,
The songs that we listened to when we were young are immediately recognised.
We only have to hear the first two or three notes,
The memory lingers on.
There are songs which encourage us to be brave and to hold on.
We Shall Overcome is a timeless example of these.
And songs which celebrate the encouragement which we receive from other people.
Think for instance of You Raise Me Up and The Wind Beneath My Wings.
Songs like this remind us to give thanks for the people who have encouraged us and who continue to believe in us.
And what about those wonderful three words of advice,
Let It Be,
A latter day musical expression of the Simplicity Prayer.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
Just let it be.
Have you ever been encouraged to hang on in there because of some music that you've heard?
Let's have another one minute pause to think about this and to give thanks.
Let's have another one.
Welcome back.
I hope you found something useful in that short break.
There's great encouragement to hold on in lyrics penned by Mark D Sanders and Tia Sillars in the wonderful I Hope You Dance sung by Lee Anne Womack.
These lyrics are a prayer for wonder,
Gratitude,
Amazement,
Hope,
Bravery and resilience.
The song asks us to give faith a fighting chance and tells us when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance.
So far we have spoken of lyrics but music too can inspire us and lift us up.
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture gives us a story without words.
And which one of us,
Any one of us,
Can any one of us fail to be moved on hearing the majestic triumphal scene in Verdi's opera Aida.
Notice too how the orchestra can reproduce the sounds of nature.
How amazing it is that a piano can give us the unmistakable sound of a bumblebee in Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.
Beethoven's 6th symphony known as the Pastoral faithfully reproduces the sound of a storm.
And if you want to hear raindrops produced by a piano you only have to listen to Chopin's Prelude No.
15.
Let's have another one minute break now to allow us to give thanks for the gift of music.
Welcome back.
Mickey Hart tells us there's nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it.
And we can hardly speak about music without referring to religious music,
Sounds of faith,
Hymns which we have heard in church,
Words and music that speak to the soul.
Think of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah,
An oratorio which had its first performance here in Dublin on the 13th April 1742.
And there are so many more in the religious category.
Songs can remind us of how lucky we are and they can inspire us to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Who can fail to be moved by the lyrics of the song Streets of London by Ralph McTell where we hear stories of people who have come upon hard times.
The old man in the closed down market and the old girl walking London's streets and carrying her home in two carrier bags.
Songs remind us of the importance of friendship.
We are introduced to Eleanor Rigby buried along with her name.
Nobody coming to her funeral except Father Mackenzie.
He living alone,
Darning his socks in the night with nobody there.
All the lonely people.
Whenever I hear the Bagatelle song Summer in Dublin I'm transported back to sunny days in Dublin in the 1970s and as the song puts it,
The young people walking down Grafton Street,
Everyone looking so well.
Each time I hear the Red Rose Cafe I want to up and go off to Amsterdam to seek out that cafe in the harbour where as the song describes everyone shares in the songs and the laughter.
Everyone there so happy to be there.
There are songs that make us feel free offering comfort and support to people who suffer discrimination.
The song I Am What I Am encourages each of us to march to the sound of our own drum.
It offers the lines,
It's my life that I want to have a little pride in.
My life and it's not a place I have to hide in.
Life's not worth a damn till you can shout out I Am What I Am.
The lives of all of us have been influenced by music.
In this short meditation I've tried to share with you just some of the songs that have been part of the soundtrack to my life.
But there are so very many more.
If I was to share it all so much more time would be needed where as really what I would like to do is encourage you to explore the soundtrack of your life,
Your own life and allow you to give thanks for the gift of song in your life.
I hope that having listened to this reflection you might do just that.
So how to conclude a reflection on music?
I suppose I'll have to fall back on some of the words of a song by ABBA where they give thanks for music.
Who can live without it I ask in all honesty.
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music,
For giving it to me.
Yes I think that captures it.
Let's just say thank you for the music,
Thank you for the gift of song.
Namaste.
