Music is Magic

I came to Erik a couple of days ago and told him I would be working very hard over the next two months to live in the present.  I also shared I had learned from a TED Talk by Jill Bolte Taylor about the right brain being a huge part of my homework in this study.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

He mentioned I may want to use music to help me in that as a tool.  Since music is more his thing, I assured him that I would rather use visuals such as bright colors to help me in this journey.  He was very understanding but asked me to keep the idea in mind just in case.  It wouldn’t be the first time my husband was correct about my needs.

Family Movie Night

In light of the crazy closed-in adventure we are currently experiencing, there has been need to multiply our family movie nights on occasion.  Last night, we finally succumbed to the kids’ continued request for a family viewing of Jurassic Park.  Our 6 year old boy, Kemuel, had already watched it months ago and he was eager to share it with his 9 year old sister who had been gone at a party that night.  They both were so excited about the movie that Erik and I decided it would be a fun selection.

The Message

Something I forgot to mention is that Jurassic Park happens to contain my absolute favorite piece of movie scoring ever.  (aside from Erik’s scores of course)  When Hammond welcomes Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler to the park and they get their first view of the brachiosaurus, an absolutely majestic ensemble of instruments streams in with a message almost completely unexpected for a movie of this type.  Suddenly my eyes close and my body begins to sway.  I can’t help it.  The message to my heart and soul is that of peace and beauty.  I feel the soft instruction to see the beauty right here right now and experience the peace from that comes from that moment as a result.  Every time I hear it, I experience that same result.

The Lesson

Last night, I realized just what that meant.  I had found an exercise to help my right brain.  After the movie, I begged Erik to play me the music on his newest keyboard.  I felt so thankful to have my own musician available for this next step in my journey.  It seemed to make the visualization during the music even more dramatic and colorful than usual.  It truly was magic to my brain and my body.

Too often I have avoided anything that allows me to stop for any amount of time and focus on something that isn’t necessarily “productive”.  Now that I have given myself permission to work on being in the present, I am finally allowed to see and place the incredible new piece in this puzzle as I continue to learn how best to work through this world of adventure and healing.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to learn more.