Symphony by Susan L.

 I was invited to attend a performance by the Oakville Symphony Sunday afternoon. It's been a long time since I've seen music performed live. It fed my soul and I was sad when it ended.
  Watching the conductor, whose fluid movements were like a dance, sent my mind wandering. I imagined the great Conductor at the dawn of creation bringing everything into being. Even the notes of the orchestra created visions of swirling, churning life so new it shone. Rainbow hues of colour: earthy browns, speckled granites, clear water blues of sky and sea, the fire of stars and sun spun in organized chaos before my eyes.
  The guest musician was a cellist who played during the second half of the performance. I watched as he became the music, as everything else disappeared but the Notes. Despite being tied to earthly needs like the chair he sat upon, despite knocking over the lead violinist's music stand in a flourish of bow, (a smile and a nod for apology) he ceased to exist as a man.
  Watching him set me free. The last chains of formal classical training where toe tapping, body swaying, in fact any external expression of the music is banned except to play what is written, have fallen away. I don't need to contain what comes most naturally any more. Although, in the listening, I was utterly still and focused on the interweaving of the various voices of the strings, woodwinds, brass.
  I can understand how the cellist felt. I can understand how the music becomes the soul's expression. I can understand the joy of getting lost in a melody that drowns out the world for a little while. It's something I do every time I sit down to the piano and play my heart's song for an audience of One.
  I think what touched me most of all was how incredibly vulnerable and brave he was. He bared his soul to the audience.
  Lord, thank You for the music. Thank You that I will be able to be just as free with the worship team.
  "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eph 5:18-20