Category: Self-Expression

Hope is a thing with feathers

Emily Dickinson’s famous poem, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” is often quoted. Usually just the first verse is referenced, but there are two other verses. Here is the poem in its entirety:

Hope warms our souls on the coldest of days. We have only to take a moment and listen for its song to reassure ourselves that there is hope.“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

I thought it quite telling in the last verse that the poet points out that Hope never asks for anything from us, but is content to sit by us through the storms of life, singing its sweet song constantly. Hope warms our souls on the coldest of days. It is always there, and we have only to take a moment and listen for its song to reassure ourselves that there is hope.

Although I don’t make my future dependent upon hope, I do hold hope quite dear. I have hopes for my children to be productive and contributing members of society. I have hopes that humanity can find the good in every situation. I have hopes that the future of the world is bright and beautiful. I can’t control any of these things myself, but I can make my small contribution.

I can teach my children that it is important to be responsible, caring citizens in their community. I can find the good in a situation and help others see it and find good for themselves. I can do my part to provide a brightness and beauty to the world; for me, that’s through writing and art. Emily Dickinson certainly did her part, in reminding us that hope is always there.

Dusting Off the Ivories

 

In a short amount of time – just over a week – I’ve gone from stumbling through this piece of music to being able to confidently (but not perfectly) play the first page.

 

I learned to play the piano as a child. My mother is a classically trained musician and music teacher, and I took lessons from her advanced students (you can’t teach your own child was her philosophy). I practiced, sometimes for hours at a time (in my mind), but usually not my lesson songs. I was drawn to show tunes and some popular music (most notably “Nadia’s Theme” also known as the theme from “Young and the Restless.” [listen here]). Sitting at the piano was a form of meditation for me; I could get lost in singing and playing and not worrying about homework or grades or what I was going to do when I grew up.

Despite all that “practicing,” I wasn’t a great pianist. Good enough to make it through a few hymns on Sunday if my mother (the church organist/pianist) was unavailable (and the substitute pianist was also unavailable). Good enough to entertain myself once in a while with a song or two. Good enough to help my children with their lessons.

Recently I started listening to Pandora Radio before bed, and I chose a channel I called “Lullabye Radio.” It has turned out to be a nice variety of contemporary lite music and classical. Often there are beautiful piano concertos, again contemporary and classical. And I started yearning to spend some time at the piano again.

So everyday, I take no more than 10 minutes to sit down and play. I started with Tchaikovsky’s Opening Theme from Piano Concerto No. 1, [YouTube video, but not of me!)] which I randomly selected from my mother’s music cabinet. After a week, I’ve gotten fairly confident about page one. Page two is decidedly harder, but I’m going to start tackling that soon. (My version is shorter than the YouTube video to which I link above).

The point of this rather long winded story is that in a short amount of time – just over a week – I’ve gone from stumbling through this piece of music to being able to confidently (but not perfectly) play the first page.  I’ve spent 5-10 minutes a day going over the same piece of music. I don’t sit down with the intention of perfection, but rather the intention of improvement. And each time I get a little better. Better than if I were to have sat for 2 hours straight and repeated the selection over and over. Each day I’m focusing on one thing for that brief amount of time – a form of meditation for me. My spirit is uplifted, I’m refocused and better able to attend to my other tasks of the day.

Do you have a meditative habit that you use to refocus? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or on my Facebook page.