Cultivate a Love-Filled Life
Curating Your World with Love
“Is there a song that makes you catch your breath when you hear it but you don’t know why?”
This random question from a friend spurred all kinds of thoughts. Of course they started with the songs and artists themselves…Seal, Peter Gabriel, Melody Gardot, the opening bars of “Bourbon in Your Eyes,” the Daft Punk medley by my current musical obsession Pentatonix…
But I found myself also taking apart those songs and wondering what is it about them that touches me? Why do I get the same chills from “Hushabye Mountain” as I get from the 2nd movement of Schubert’s Mass in G as I get from the movie “Tango”? What are the common elements?
It’s kind of a useful exercise. As I narrowed it down I was able to phrase it in terms such as “tight low grooves” and “pure harmonies.” Tango music in general, as well.
But words actually fail where the sensation really exists. That same feeling I get from those beats and tones is why I like watching cigar smoke curl up to the ceiling, why I wear cufflinks, why rough housing with Harvey or holding my partner as she sleeps all feed my soul. It’s what I get when I watch “I Wanna Be Ready” from Alvin Ailey’s “Resurrection”, and what I feel when I taste my favorite lasagna.
It is a quality that I’m not a good enough writer to express. That’s ok, though, because it’s my quality, it’s what I like. What I would suggest, in this Spring weekend that isn’t quite warm enough to live up to the name, is that you take those easy things you love and dissect them. Figure out what qualities they have, and find those qualities in other things. Surrounding ourselves with the qualities of what we love — doesn’t that sound like a worthwhile use of time?
“How many times do we lose an occasion for soul work by leaping ahead to final solutions without pausing to savor the undertones? We are a radically bottom-line society, eager to act and to end tension, and thus we lose opportunities to know ourselves for our motives and our secrets.” — Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul
