Counting life

We wake up looking at the clock. By the time we open our eyes, we’re already stressed that we might be late for something. Before we even realise what day it is or even where we are, we begin counting to see if we have time.

We spend most of our day like this. Calculating. Looking at the clock. Stressing.

Our heads are filled with perceptions about what needs to be done at what time. The fact that we might be late as per our age for some things adds more stress. The same if we are early. It seems that either going too slow or too fast in life is always frowned upon. Everyone will always have something to say. That’s just the way human nature is.

But we all have our own rhythms. And that is the pace we should live by.

Like Einstein said “not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that is counted truly counts”.

Powerfully stated by Jay Shetty in this short video to watch when pressure is mounting, you need “to be able to create meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling lives for yourselves and learn how to use that to make an impact and a difference on the lives of others. That would be true success”.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what other people say or think. All that matters is how you are.

Advertisement

Curvy Dancer

Once the music began, she could feel the notes diffuse into her veins and flow into her system. Her entire body was taken over by the rhythm and all she could do was surrender to the melody. Her curves began to sway and she was soon prancing about like a thick elastic band. Melissa did not care she was curvy and did not fit into the stereotypes. She loved to dance and that was all.

Melissa was introduced to dancing like most little girls, through a tutu and pointes. She was a chubby little ballerina, but was the best in her class, something most people did not anticipate. Not even her own mother who had registered Melissa for dancing classes in the first place as a form of exercise and in the hope that the curves that had taken form early on would ‘straighten’.

The curves did not disappear. But Melissa’s love for dance grew.

After ballet, she underwent a period of revolution and reaction – she entered the world of hip-hop and breakdance and stunned onlookers with the elasticity of her body.

As she matured, and felt young men’s gaze on her, Melissa turned to contemporary dance, as a way of expressing what she could not utter. She got lost in the unscripted, abstract movements that took her mind off the challenges of adulthood and for that brief time made her carefree and wispy.

As she gathered experiences and passed through heartbreaks and the trials of relationships, Melissa moved onto other forms of dance – ballroom granted her grace and elegance, while Latin gave her room for expression, sassiness and vivacity.

But it was when she got acquainted with the tango that Melissa felt complete. When she met a dancing partner, who later became one for life; when she moved her feet to the rhythm with her eyes closed, succumbing to the passion and emotions the dance awakened within her. It was then that she felt most alive. When she danced, blocking out everyone and everything else. When she took off her dancing shoes with a revived sense of optimism that everything would be OK. All she had to do was believe it and dance to the rhythm in her heart.

 

N.B. April 29 is International Dance Day – a relevant article on the benefits of dance can be found here.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Curve

That magical beat that keeps you ticking

21 June was World Music Day. And it was indeed fitting that the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, should be filled with tunes from all corners of the world. Worldwide events were held, open-air, under the stars, in gardens and concert-halls to celebrate that art, that harmonious tune that gives rhythm to our lives.

Music is defined as “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color”. People listen to different types of music, but they all feel a connection at one point or other to some song, tune or orchestral piece that reaches right to the cords of their heart. That makes you associate that very tune you hear to something in your life, a happy moment, a memory, a dream, an event. Put briefly, music is in itself, life.

Music is at times a refuge, a haven, a way out of pain, anguish and anxiety when reality strikes. Whatever your preferred theme or type – be it rock, pop, jazz, blues, R&B,  disco, classical, rap, hip-hop, ska, or whatever other genre there is – music, like Victor Hugo said, “expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent”.

Music is all around us and everyone has something to say about it: that it is healing; it is a prayer; it is a song to the universe; it is a revelation; the speech of angels; a truth; a treasure; it is expression; it is magic. Music is something to everyone. And perhaps what best sums it all up is that “music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life” (Berthold Auerbach).

People often start their day with birds tweeting (the original type) outside their window, then with earphones singing in their ears, radios blasting in their cars. Have ringtones at the sound of their favorite artists. Go to concerts to hear them live. Watch programs showcasing new talents, revealing new voices that will prove ground-breaking to the music industry’s perpetuation. And then at the end of a long day people often chose to relax by turning on some music when they get home. Music is naturally an integral part of our entire day. And it has radically evolved from the simple beat of self-made drums and other instruments, to the complex electronic sounds of today (even if at times some of these sound more like noise, rather than rhythmic melodies).

Music is even part of demonstrations and mass rallies. It is the common language that everybody knows and that unites people across countries and continents. It is the bridge linking differing views and opinions. Music is above all a unifying force. One that can bring the so-desired change everyone is looking for. For music extends its grasp to the very core of people’s soul. It brings light to the everyday darkness simply because it fills the silence and masks the noise that surrounds us. And for this, music is indispensable.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Eye of the Beholder