Fact about me: I absolutely love music. I love to listen to it, I love to attempt to sing along with it, and on occasion, I love to try playing it. I am not a musician. I enjoy music mostly as a soundtrack to my life. Each mood, each shift in weather, and each season has its own musical quality about it. I noticed it today, actually. I've known for a long time that music had a special place in my heart, but today I really took note of the pairing of music with various moments of my life.
As I was driving to church this morning, I found myself instantly switching from some upbeat, bass blasting music, to a much more sedate station. And then it struck me, in terms of weather, winter has begun to settle in for the year. I smiled. Winter is a much more indoorsy, intimate time of year, at least the way I see it. Falling temperatures and increasing wind gusts tend to drive people inside.
Don't get me wrong, I love to be outside. A good walk or run, getting down into the dirt and working hard, these are awesome things. And even in the winter, I enjoy sledding and skating whenever possible. I've even been known to build a snowman when stranded on the side of the road (yes, I try to make even frustrating situations a time to enjoy life), but my outdoor activities have long decreased in the winter. And I think that's true of a lot of people. I haven't done research on it or anything, but it seems to make sense.
Anyway, while we whittle away at the wintery hours, we are forced to be in closer proximity to each other than any other time during the year. For some, that's when disaster strikes, but in my very family oriented heart, I love being "stuck" inside because of a good snow storm. It's an opportunity to do puzzles together, play games, sit in front of a crackling fire, and just be together. I love it.
And as that shift in weather begins to occur, so do my music preferences. I go from windows down blaring my favorite Christian rock bands to heater on playing classical music in the background. My heart sighs and I settle in for a long winter's nap for my soul. Perhaps I noticed the shift more dramatically this year because I am looking ahead to when that peacefulness extends beyond just my hours at home but also into many other aspects of my life.
My cognizance of such a shift is also probably related to the fact that on the classical music station I most listen to, they have been doing little blurbs about the characteristics of various keys in music. I found a helpful website about it: Key Characteristics
As I have spent a rather enjoyable Sunday afternoon recuperating from my week, I have been enjoying various classical music selections from my extensive music collection. I am amazed at the almost instant change within myself from striving and anxious to quietly content. Not to say that my other music choices are troublesome to my spirit for the most part. It's just that loud music is my super perky, hair blowing in the wind, sunshine on my face choice. More sedate music is my settle in and enjoy some hot cocoa music (which I have actually done this afternoon, by the way).
There are my in between moods too. They see quite a variety from hymns to pop to country to whatever else you can think of. Don't take my loud music or even my quiet music as a sign of something being wrong. But, if I don't want to listen to music at all, that might be a time to stand behind a blast shield as you come ask me what's up.
This does not mean I always have some device playing music, but there is usually a song playing through my head even if I'm not humming or singing along to it. But you might catch me singing along to it. Don't worry, I'm not completely crazy. I'm just enjoying the soundtrack to my life.
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