To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour.
(from Auguries of Innocence)
— William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, painter, and printmaker
“Through the lens of science we can see how even the smallest thing can be a gateway to an experience of the extraordinary, if only we can practice noticing.
We walk past a thousand, thousand natural miracles everyday, from the sun climbing in the sky to the arc of birds seen out our windows. Those miracles are there waiting for us to see them, to notice them and, most importantly, to find our delight in theirs.”
— Adam Frank (b. August 1, 1962) American physicist, astronomer, and writer
quote from NPR All Things Considered, March 19, 2013.
To hear Adam Frank’s commentary, click the link.
How To See the World in a Grain of Sand
Music encapsulates objects, thoughts, emotions, ideas, and even entire worlds into a smaller, understandable, viewable—through the mind’s eye or psyche—experience. Music can also encapsulate the transcendent. As the tagline of this blog says, music encapsulates those things which are not contained in words or images.
Listening to music, with its passage of time, we are experiencing small slices of the world—like a microscope focuses on a small segment to see the entirety of an object.
It is the slowing down and listening to (noticing) moments that we are acutely aware of them and we can feel them. Music helps us to do this.
Words make you think a thought.
Music makes you feel a feeling.
A song makes you feel a thought.
— Yip Harburg (1896-1981) American popular song lyricist and librettist
Songs are a potent, succinct, powerful lens into the world. For me personally, songwriting is a metaphor for life and being creative. It makes me slow down to find the exact words for scenes or emotions I want to describe. I have to stop and examine (in minute detail) ideas, feelings, events, and stories. In doing that, in seeing the small building blocks of (a person’s) life—I see the world—I glimpse heaven. I experience infinity in one instance—I am in awe of the breadth of eternity in this one moment. Likewise, listening to a song—or any music—draws us into a flow of time where we slow down and experience smaller segments of life.
This instant of completely experiencing emotions, thoughts, and images in a musical moment of time—a grain of sand—is at once exhilarating and miraculous.
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Are there songs that draw you into experiencing a small slice of life? Tell me about your awareness of being entirely in that moment?
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