May 6, 2008
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Now that I have a stereo set up in my main room, and I can look out into the forest, I hear music from my past with a perspective that old growth provides. It’s why I like the ocean, too. I was at a stoplight and to my right I saw Music Millenium. I immediately made a right, parked, and went in to buy the Loreena McKennitt CD that I used to listen to.
I used to listen to it a lot, as I chose one of her songs to perform to, but it was in my car that day in 2001 when all my favorite CDs were stolen. I was learning a form of Qigong that lent itself to the long intro, and the mystical sound of her song made veil a must. Holding onto a veil and zills at the same time is tricky — My teacher was a stickler for keeping them on — so for at least three months I practiced to this CD every day. That’s how long it would typically take to get a costume together, make up the choreography, and get the techniques down and memorized.
I got home and put the CD in, trying to remember the song that had moved me so. It brought back that period of time I was getting ready to leave my husband and my heart felt weary from the old pain. It’s amazing how much strength and passion good music can manifest.
But standing like an old tree, listening with a new distance, I felt foolish. My heart ached for someone I never should have wanted. He was only there to teach me, to show me who I was. I feel sure I showed him who he could be.
I think my greatest gift is that I have the capacity to appreciate beauty. These trees, these songs, these men; love should be kept on a higher plane than I’ve been toying with, and this morning I am realigning my thinking.
Comments (7)
this is a profound look at the past from a future view… awesome thinking!
Hey Prudy…
Mummer’s Dance is one of my favorites. A haunting melody that takes me away to places I can never predict when the journey begins. The verse is beautiful but it is muted and I get lost in the music not the words.
She tours so seldomly in North America that I have never seen her in concert. I have considered a travel schedule that would leave me in a European city where and when she was appearing, but I have never pulled it togethr.
As an ex-marine and viet vet, Mummer’s Dance, set to scenes from Iraq, was especially poignant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmTKHf6B4NA
Hope you are feeling better.
It’s amazing how much strength and passion good music can manifest.
I’d never really thought about that, but… yeah. And then it can also bring back another time with the same emotions of the original.
“But standing like an old tree, listening with a new distance, I felt foolish. My heart ached for someone I never should have wanted. He was only there to teach me, to show me who I was. I feel sure I showed him who he could be.
I think my greatest gift is that I have the capacity to appreciate beauty. These trees, these songs, these men; love should be kept on a higher plane than I’ve been toying with, and this morning I am realigning my thinking.”
These are two absolutely amazing paragraphs.
Yup – now I have Mummer’s Dance in my head.
Thanks for stopping by. Jumby is one of my three bestest children!!! (and the only one with xanga) I’m a very proud and happy mama.
That music can be like an enzyme can’t it? You make e want to put some on right now.