The Space Between

I wanted to briefly share a passage of a novel I'm currently reading on my Kindle, one that made such a beautiful impact, both for the imagery created in the writing itself, and for the deep-seeded love & respect I hold for music in my own personal life. Music is such a journey of the soul for many, it can be something that ends up saving you, breaking you, or rebuilding you, ultimately it's a part of your personal life story...Someday you'll hear all of mine...for now, please let these words sink deep to your core & take a wonderful breath in. -C.E.C

"When you play music, when you put an instrument to your lips or merge your hands with ivory, the act transforms. It makes of you a conduit between Heaven and Earth.

There are some feelings, some states of mind, that cannot be expressed in words. The transcendent beauty of moonrise over a quiet field, when your soul stills itself for a time, just long enough to remind you that you are still alive, still human, in a world that seems ravaged by inhuman beasts. And the deep, haunting song of loss, with its crossed harmonies and poignant discords, the way it reaches to the inside of you and turns your spirit out, everts the essence of your being through your heart or through your mouth and leaves it to hang there, vulnerable and exposed. There are some refrains that have taken up residence in his heart and mind and become a permanent part of him - and sometimes he likes to imagine that the men and women who composed those works felt exactly what he feels when he listens or plays. His very thoughts are theirs, and through the spell of rhythm he can sense, across the improbability of time and space, every throb and ache of the composer's heart. Music is a way of transporting emotion from one breast to another. It is a way of knowing the unknowable, of feeling what we can never allow ourselves to confront in any other way. These agonies and ecstasies - they can break us, use us up, burn us away unless we shield our hearts with music.

Even if we speak uncommon tongues, sound grants us the mercy of understanding. That sympathetic quiver of the heart, when a harmony rolls in thirds, or a seventh resolves into the octave - it's the greatest miracle God ever wrought, for it shows us that we are one."

✒The Ragged Edge of Night / by Olivia Hawker (excerpt)

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