Meditation - the moments you spend in solitude and silence with reflection and a listening ear. Yet, these moments sometimes seem to me to be one of the hardest things to embrace in any given day. Between everything that is going on and all that I need to get done, the minutes fly by.
Today as I was sitting there playing my piano, I thought back to all the days that this has been a constant in my life. No matter how difficult the days or the events got in my life, there was always the piano. In fact, between the piano and my pets, I can always find life's center with these things. When nothing else in life gives me a moment of peace or stillness, I always have my piano.
When I was a child, my house was never dull and quiet. There were constant times of screaming, yelling and criticizing. In addition to that, love, touch and companionship, were shown to us in ways that were abusive, harmful and full of evil. It was in those moments, that the only thing I could do was to find a way to escape. For I could not deal with what was taking place at that time and it was not like I could just run away from the situation. There was no place to run to and no place to hide.
During these times, I would turn to my piano and play the songs that I so loved. Most of these were church hymns and choruses because that is all I knew and about all I was ever allowed to work with. Their easy melodies and harmonies along with the gentle and peaceful words found in the verses of the songs, made for some beautiful moments of connectedness for my life.
Today as I was playing some of these songs, I noticed that the pain and turmoil of the past are brought up within the notes. For the pain and turmoil was as much a connection for me to these songs as the peaceful moments were. And while the pain and turmoil is sometimes still overwhelming to me, there is a side of these songs that takes me into a space unlike any other. It is a place of deepness, far removed from this world.
One could say it is a place of meditation or spirituality but to me it goes much deeper than that. It is very hard to describe. I know I have read that Yanni talks about going into a black space when he creates. I'm sure what he is talking about and what I'm talking about are our own similar experiences with this. I'm sure each artist knows first hand what this space is.
It is a beautiful place to be and travel into. It does give me the opportunity to be deep in meditation. To me, meditation is not only about sitting cross legged in silence. It is much more that that. Meditation is a deep connection to what is not readily seen or heard. I'm always amazed at just how much insight, awareness and communication I receive when I'm deep in the meditative moments of playing my piano and creating.
May you find those deep moments within yourself that give you reset, renewal and a different outlook. May your own meditation bring you deeper within yourself.
While I don't record most of what I play in these moments, some of the music has made it on to my CD's of relaxing piano music from the heart. This music often comes out of those times and sound clips can be found on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify.
For More Information on Don Shetterly, Visit his website at http://www.donshetterly.com
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