inner peace

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Here’s a tip for finding inner peace:

If I have had a bad day—and even a laid-back, Thoreau-quoting naturalist can have days that do not go well—I put on the second movement “Andante” to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and hit the repeat button and just let it play over and over and over, sometimes for hours. The muted strings of the opening are said to be “dream-like” suggesting a night time canoe ride on a placid lake. But I’m not one of those that “sees” visual scenes when I listen to wordless music. Instead, I feel the emotion of the music and this piece feels placid. The solo piano that joins the strings and plays against them, repeating their melody lulls me into forgetting my troubles.

The other night while sitting on the back deck at dusk with the Mozart passage playing over and over to my left, a wood thrush started his early evening serenade to my right. It was as though the woodland bird felt the music and wanted to sing along. (A bittersweet moment since the thrushes will soon stop singing for the year.)

Now, that’s how to find inner peace!

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