In musical composition and performance big, loud, amazing moments can inspire and move us, overwhelm our senses and emotions with grandeur. However, too much prolonged big and loud can end up feeling disquieting and unsatisfactory. The gradual decline into a familiar volume is part of what makes the momentous moment awesome. The contrast is part of the joy. In the playing and listening of life perhaps it is the same. All the December holiday hoopla is awesome but who could endure comfortably twelve relentless months of it? The majority of life follows the decrescendo from whoopee-de-doo wonderful into sustainable levels.
Decrescendo is defined at dictionary.com.
1. gradually reducing force or loudness; diminuendo (opposed to crescendo)
2. a gradual reduction in force or loudness
Decrescendo is further explained by its origin in early 19th century Italian meaning literally "decreasing."
1. gradually reducing force or loudness; diminuendo (opposed to crescendo)
2. a gradual reduction in force or loudness
Decrescendo is further explained by its origin in early 19th century Italian meaning literally "decreasing."
Churches that follow the Roman Rite Christian Liturgical Calendar call these current weeks Ordinary Time. Holy, common space in which to live through the year total - according to their count - 33 or 34 weeks. We live in ordinary most of the time. But it is special time, time after the hoorah to grow and rest and enjoy the effect of decrescendo.
While I embrace the gradual reduction in force and loudness of life, I am also aware of the lasting gift of the big and bold. We get to keep some of the magic of the momentous in the new music of life ahead. Gifts offered and received remain. Photos taken and shared enchant our eyes. New aspects are part of the transformed ordinary that keeps some of the sparkle.
Later today I will do something I have never done before. Amidst the ordinary of my life I will celebrate a local reading for my first book of poetry. This is something that started in the bigness of December when my book, Garden, launched December 1 and now remains a part of my new normal. My sustainable ordinary has grown richer. Each of us can carry something forward that keeps the normal both comfortable and a bit new as the energy of life makes its decrescendo into regular routines.
Return through Forte
Dancing or dreaming or decorating with lights and bows
Christ knows something coming and the climb joyfully
louder and louder until the top where we stay until
resolution of new ears hearing the start of phrase
tune gradually rising and falling on notes sent
breath rolls we through a melody making
the way clear of stellar amazing
our strong suit sport
normal urn holds
ordinary time
soft.
No comments:
Post a Comment