Live music is food for the soul, especially when you know someone in the band and the music seems to be a message from one heart to another. As I listened to a friend sing, the seamless way the individuals on stage worked together was an inspiration. Nobody was more important than the other. Domination was something one could not imagine in context. Everything started with “singers out front, the band behind, maidens in the middle with castanets,” (Psalm 68.25) and an audience willing to share the experience.
It was pure magic.
I do not know how the music was able to reach my center but it did. The combination of commitment, discipline, and talent on stage was obvious however I do not think that was the most important factor. There was something about the heart, individually and collectively. There was something about the words, caring wrapped words from any perspective. There was something about the way the music lived and breathed, almost as if it had a life of its own.
I came, open and interested in experiencing what the ensemble had to say that night. I left enriched and filled with a sense of hope and possibilities. It was hard to explain, although I tried to the next day. Even now, other than what I have shared, I do not know how to share what I think it missing from the story.
As I think about what is ahead, I find myself looking forward to reconnecting in the future. I know it will be different. Ensembles, even when they are made up of the same individuals, always change with time. They seem to reflect life and the journey up to the moment at hand. They cannot project the future, just the now and how it has been influenced by everything that came before.
It is in the moment at hand that I hear them in my mind. The memory of the sound and the connection has restorative powers. It is a reminder of the importance of what one finds in the moment we have.
