Music

I am rereading Anne of Green Gables and am thoroughly enjoying it!  I have forgotten how much of Anne is in me.  :)  One of the things we have in common is a very vivid imagination.  Sometimes when a moment arises that is "iconic", i imagine a song or symphony orchestra start up right at the perfect moment!  Music really touches my soul.

Yesterday i was sitting in the hot car staring out the window.  At first this is what i saw - dusty road, dirt, rubbish, lots of people, cars, trucks, etc all on their own mission - in a word ...choas - a typical African city.  No scope for imagination, to use Anne's words!  But just then i really tuned in.

Somewhere a song blared and suddenly everything changed.  I saw a 10m long white pipe gently wobbling to the tune of the song coming along the road.  In the middle of the dancing pipe was a shoulder attached to a man sitting behind his friend on a motorcycle.  Just another day's shopping going home. :) Then i saw more motorcycles weaving to the rhythm of the music, trucks filling in the gaps.  Music playing out, coming to life.  People in every conceivable colour walking with swaying hips and arms, some carrying huge loads on their heads - all in perfect rhythm.   Little kids darting between the cars, trucks and motorbikes, crazy little notes barely getting to the other side alive!  Wind picking up old plastic bags and letting them fly to the tune!  The dirty street with it rubbish lined sides changed becasue of the song - it gave it a new dimension.  It gave me hope.

The next scene was me looking out of my kitchen window.  Some boys were playing soccer on the field opposite our house.  Someone switched on a radio somewhere close by - a typical African three note song - over and over the same tune, but somehow it just fit.  The boys kicking up dust, yelling, cheering, some more yelling and then screams of gladness as someone scored a goal.  All the time the song went around and around, giving something new to the familiar scene.  A few little boys were playing in the background - gentle laughter, a baby crying, a goat bleating, a motorcycle's peeping horn....it all fit in the song.

Some songs are not so joyful.  Funeral chants, i find very disturbing.  All together another type of music. Or the nightly drums during initiation.  People madly running up and down the dirt road to the beat of drums and little coke cans filled with pebbles.  Those are sad songs to me.

There truly is music all around.  Sound waves.  Just think God created with WORDS!  I wonder sometimes if He sang them!  Music comes from Him, a gift to us.  No matter what our culture or background, or wheteher we live in a city or in the middle of nowhere, music plays a big part of our lives.  God's gift to us, helping us put into words how we feel! (i wonder sometimes how many love songs were written from the beginning of time?  Or songs about just life in general.)  I love the Portuguese Fado - so soulful, sad most of the time but still beautiful and expressive.

With music i touch God's face like a little girl who looks up at her papa and lightly touches his cheek.  Or a mother who softly reaches out to tuck her baby's lock of hair behind a soft little ear.  That is music to me.  It touches me deeply.  It gives me a way to gain perspective and see things in a new light - like our dusty and dirty old African town...

But overall the most precious to me about music is it gives me a way to adore God.  To sing love songs to Him, to find Him in that secret place.  Thank You Lord for Music.

Bella, with a song in my heart.