“Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Music plays an important role in my life, and how it affect my daily life. Someone said : “My life is a great movie, filled with songs, smiles and tears.”
I’m curious about how music affects the brain. “The researchers found that music powerfully influenced the emotional ratings of the faces. Happy music made happy faces seem even happier while sad music exaggerated the melancholy of a frown“, Mark Changizi in his articleWhy Does Music Make Us Feel?
My choice about what music I listen to, highly depends on how I feel or I sometimes, I listen to music to help me change how I feel.
I like the lyrics to this song and find myself humming it many times during the day. And I am a lover of the light. I think this song is related to my post on Define Your Moment.
I like the lyrics to this song and find myself humming it. And I am a lover of the light.
“Lover Of The Light”
And in the middle of the night I may watch you go There’ll be no value in the strength Of walls that I have grown There’ll be no comfort in the shade Of the shadows thrown But I’d be yours if you’d be mine
Stretch out my life And pick the seams out Take what you like But close my ears and eyes Watch me stumble over and over
I had done wrong You build your tower But call me home And I will build a throne And wash my eyes out never again
But love the one you hold And I’ll be your goal To have and to hold A lover of the light
With skin too tight And eyes like marbles You spin me high So watch me as I glide Before I tumble homeward, homeward
I know I tried I was not stable And flawed by pride I miss my sanguine eyes So hold my hands up — breathe in and breathe out
So love the one you hold And I’ll be your goal To have and to hold A lover of the light
And in the middle of the night I may watch you go There’ll be no value in the strength Of walls that I have grown There’ll be no comfort in the shade Of the shadows thrown You may not trust the promises Of the change I’ll show But I’d be yours if you’d be mine
So love the one you hold And I’ll be your goal To have and to hold A lover of the light
So love the one you hold
And I will be your goal
To have and to hold
A lover of the light
When a friend shared this song with me, I invited him to write a story based on the music. And we were successful to write “Into The Light”. We shared a Google doc and uploaded a picture to trigger our creativity. Our characters are Pedro and Anthea.
This is the beginning of our story:
He had been up since before dawn. Getting dressed in the moonlight. He couldn’t sleep – again! He had been walking on this road for hours flashlight in hand. Had he gone this far before? The landmarks he thought he knew so well seemed blurry in the pre-dawn light. He laughed to himself, thinking of her did that to him. Was it distraction or courage? Either way he felt sure he had ventured off his familiar route and beyond his usual boundaries.
Slowly he became aware that dawn was here. The warm sunlight on his cheek roused him from deep thought. He laughed to himself again, just how preoccupied was he that hadn’t noticed the gathering light?!
He turned off his flashlight and looked up to see the sunlight filtering through the morning mist captured under the arching tree branches. He stopped to absorb the beauty displayed before him. In his heart he felt like this path was safe, but he didn’t know where it would take him…
Pedro, that was his name, took a deep breath and sat on a pile of yellowish Fall leaves, still wet with dew drops, contemplating the path he had walked before and captivated by the beauty of that new, bright, yet mysterious light he could see at its very end. Was it real? Was he dreaming?. Why had he never seen that light before?
He stood up, shook the leaves off his jeans and wondered why that beauty could scare him. The early sun rays felt like a stroke on his weakened body and he felt the warmth all over it. He felt like an intruder in such a universe of beauty and mystery.
We finished writing Chapter 1. And we got stuck when we discussed how we were going to bring them back from the light. I think it has to do with the fact we felt Pedro and Anthea were reluctant to leave the light. After all, who would be willing to leave sheer happiness, maybe magical happiness perhaps. We are Human. So “The Lover Of The Light” takes me to “Human” by The Killers. When I listen to “Human”, I find myself smiling and dancing on my chair. I am a dancer and human.
Another moment that music played an important role was last Summer when I took ETMOOC when we learnt about Connected Learning, Digital Storytelling Alec Couros invited us to join into a LibDub, and I took his challenge. We chose the music all together, “Don’t Stop Me now”. Teachers from all corners of the world sent our parts and Josh Stumpenhorst managed to put it together. I still cherish this moment. Yeah, I’m having such a good time!
