Have you ever been so moved by a piece of music that you cry? I have. I do.

For days, I’ve felt drawn to listen to Max Richter’s, On the Nature of Light. Are you familiar with it? It’s easily one of my favorite contemporary classical pieces of music. I love all of Max Richter’s works. I wanted to give the music my full attention and found the quiet of this morning the perfect time. I sat with headphones on, hands crossed over my heart, and let the music hold space. I literally shed tears, so captured was I. I experienced so many different thoughts and emotions. In my journal I made a list: ecstasy, sorrow, despair, sadness, transcendence, love, intimacy, desire, longing, yearning, hope, bliss, magick, forgiveness, tenderness, tolerance, caress, breath, movement, darkness, light, expression, expansion, transformation, warmth, belief, faith, embrace, connection, grief, loss, truth…And yet words are truly insufficient to describe this kind of magick. I had this piece on repeat as I flowed through my morning tarot read. The first card, Art (aka Temperance in RWS system) – Making anything you do a work of art; friendship between mind and heart; rest and activity; light and dark; self and others; taking a creative or aesthetic approach, viewing the situation with an artistic eye.

Music saves and meets me exactly where I’m at. My first love, likely my last! I remember playing piano for hours in a tiny practice room at Centenary College (of Shreveport). Just me and Beethoven, Chopin, or Mozart. No fear or judgment. No pressure to please an audience or play perfectly. Connection to the keyboard, sound, frequency, vibration. It was sublime. In today’s heavy, heavy world, music has such power to uplift and is always a safe connection.

I stumbled upon an artist new to me, Yannic Lowack, a German composer. The piece featured below is called Leuer, another work that brings me to tears. He posted a small sample of an orchestral version, no piano, on his Instagram – you can find him on YouTube and IG.

I miss those days of studying music and daily piano practice. I’m reminded of who I was, who I am, despite years of being away – a musician, a lover of the expressive arts. May the days ahead bring opportunities to return to the keyboard and to my musical inheritance.

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