I feel as though I am finally coming out of my time of reforming now; over the last few days things seem to be slotting back into place, although this could well be just another stage on the path of transition. I've got back into a lot of the things that have been dormant in my life for a fair while: reading philosophy, playing music, reviving old relationships. It's fantastic to rediscover things you think have gone stale and realise they now have a whole new lease of life and can take you off to places you never even dreamt of before. I've started playing the guitar again which has ignited a new passion for my music collection, and also (somewhat limited) self composition. Shopenhauer says:
The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.
I am really feeling at the moment, my music, old and new, has more power to flow through me and spin me round than it has done in a long while. Music is the one art form that can take a hold of me when I least expect it, rather than requiring me to put in the effort. Other people have said what I am trying to say more eloquently:
"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music. " George Eliot
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." Aldous Huxley
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." Victor Hugo
Awesome.
I had felt recently that everything has been flat, like my senses and actions have been dulled, but now colour is flowing back into my world and everything has become beautiful and fascinating again, rather than cold and frustrating. I'm unearthing new ideas everywhere and they are flying through my mind like fireworks, hopefully this is the beginning of some new path to places I haven't been before. Perhaps though, this is just transient and I'll be back to cynicism within a few days; we'll see.
personally music has a lot of power in bringing up memories and re-establishing moods. you know i spent time in the seychelles over the summer, it was a totally new experience for me but it had some similarities with living away from a familliar place or ‘home’ and after a while, amazing as it was, i was getting homesick and stressed because of it. fool that i was i didnt take any music of my own but a friend lent me hers and it only took one song to ground me again. 1979 was one of the first pumpkin songs i heard and its possibly still my favourite and hearing that after about 4-5 weeks working in an unfamiliar environment and being able to just sit down and immerse myself in it was very refreshing.
It’s amazing a the strength of bond that a single tune or album can have with a particular time or place. There are some albums that I can’t listen to without being instantly whisked back to when they were the soundtrack to a certain time in my life.