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Year Three, Day 302: Dissonance


It is dusk. I am at the Gateway Transit Center, waiting for the Max green line and watching the sun set. The sky is filled with glorious colirs: tangerine, pink, and swirls of mauve. I tried to capture it in a picture, but my cell phone camera did not do it justice.


 I am looking forward to a good night's sleep.

I may not get it tonight. I am worried about my family member in crisis. I know I will be praying. But my heart is racing, and there is a lump in my throat.

I keep remembering the look on his face before tears spilled from his eyes. I don't know how to help him other than love him and pray for him. He has to make the decision to change. I can't fix this for him.

Sigh. Life is so painful sometimes. But then I see a beautiful sunset. Or the smile of my grandbaby. How can one exist with such extremes of heartache and joy?
Perhaps it is the pain that makes the the joy fill us on a deeper level. 

I am reminded of how I explain musical dissonance to my students. 

Sometimes they stop on a chord and say, "That doesn't sound good".

I ask them how they would like going to see a movie about a bunny rabbit hopping through a field of daisies. For two hours. Just bunny and daisies. No tension. No villain. No car chase scenes.

"Boring", they usually say.

I tell them that musical dissonance, or tension leads to resolution. I have them play the next chord. If they stop on the dissonant chord, it does sound bad. But if they keep going it will resolve. And be much more interesting because of the moment of tension.

Much like life, right?

I wish I would have thought to tell my family member in crisis the story of the bunny in the field. I wonder if it would mean anything to him? It couldn't hurt. I'll call him tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm going to go to bed and see if I can make up for that hour of sleep we lost last night!

Talk to you tomorrow.

Love,

Zita




P.S. Here is today's hooping video. Day 261!




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