After walking through 2016 with all its challenges and significant, multiple transitions, I felt the need to cool down already at the very beginning of 2017.
Having felt this growing, pressing need to “just be at home” and spend few days away from the “noise and information pollution” my everyday life so graciously provides for me without even asking, I was finally able to have three whole days off from their grip last weekend.
Cellphone off.
Computer off.
No radio.
Even in music there are pauses. Maybe we just don’t hear the significance of them until we hear a piece which has none. And my everyday song so easily has tendencies to become one of those.
Logging out of all devices, work responsibilities, house work, thought patterns that wear me down, worries of all sorts, and everything else that would hinder me from resting and drawing closer to God, stealing bandwidth from my mind and emotional life – were the first steps to take before that desired space started to reveal itself.
And the restful, different tempo that emerged during those days was really refreshing. Walking outside in nature, being more sensitive to small sounds, becoming more aware of the surrounding random everyday sounds of the house… it’s all shifting the “scenery” of my soundscape. Experiencing the new, opening space is also a deeply spiritual experience for me personally. Tuning off the noise of everyday life is also tuning in to be more sensitive to experience the Divine.
Coming out of my “mini retreat of silence” on Monday morning, the exciting everyday life that I am truly blessed and grateful to have, gradually presented itself however in stark contrast with the “Largo” of the weekend.
Undone task.
Dead line.
Unwritten application.
Report.
Chaotic email inbox.
Pending decisions.
Upcoming meetings.
Unread article.
Unreached goal.
Project x 2981.
All of them shout their loud messages and cause a cacophony which could – if I would let it – drown me in stressful, overwhelming chaos. My mother frequently repeats an old saying “Work will not run out by working.”
So my question to my self is: how do I choose to react to that statement (which seems to hold a lot of truth in it)? Do I try to still do as much as I can and stress myself out by transgressing the boundaries which promote a healthy and balanced lifestyle? Or do I acknowledge the need to prioritise and simply let go of the rest that won’t fit to the framework of today, tomorrow, or this week?
In musical terms, do I choose to pursue L’istesso tempo or A tempo ?
Glossary
Cacofonia (Italian) = Cacophony
Cacophony
- Harsh discordance of sound; dissonance: a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
- a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: the cacophony produced by city traffic at midday.
- Music. frequent use of discords of a harshness and relationship difficult to understand.
- Word Origin and History for cacophony: n. 1650s, from Greek kakophonia, from kakophonos “harsh sounding,” from kakos “bad, evil” (see caco- ) + phone “voice” (see fame (n.)). Related: Cacophonous.
Musical terms in Italian
- Accelerando = accelerating = Accelerating
- Largo = broad = Slow and dignified
- A tempo = to time = Return to previous tempo
- L’istesso tempo = Same speed = At the same speed
- poco a poco = little by little = “little by little”, “slowly but steadily”.
- Subito = suddenly, quickly = Used with other terms, such as subito fortissimo
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