“Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.”

– Thomas Carlyle

Do you hear the music?

Daybreak is one of my favorite times.  On an ideal morning, I pull on my walking shoes and step into a pre-dawn world of velvet black sky and countless stars.  Crickets chirp in the magical velvet world; and I would tell you that I can even hear the stars twinkle, but I’ve ventured there often enough to know that there are melodies that sometimes are best kept inside my own ears.  Still, their song is so clear that on some mornings I find myself humming along as I walk.  Next come the songbirds.  Perhaps they fly from a place just beyond the horizon.  Perhaps they have heard the first trumpet fanfare of the coming sunrise; and now they take their places in the great vaulted bandshell and tune their own instruments while the house lights still are low.  In the midst of their warm-up the crows appear.  They circle and dive and announce that it is time to take our places and to please direct our eyes to the eastern horizon.  A glow begins to arise with flute-like subtlety along the farthest visible edge of the land.  The stars defer to its song and return to their place of daytime rest.  Pink and purple woodwinds soon add their voices to the symphony of dawn.  The birds appear from their hidden perches and begin to swoop and fly in the dance of a new day.  The music swells as the brass section turns the sky bright orange.  Grasses and trees, in concert with the morning breeze add a rustling and whooshing like subtle vibration of cymbals touched lightly by the restrained hand of one who is caught in the quiet melody and dares not to overwhelm it with his own.  Finally, in one bright yellow moment, the kettle drums roar as the sun commands the daytime sky.  All the world dances and the whole orchestra plays the symphony of the break of day.

Do you hear the music?  Would you care to dance?  Think carefully about the sort of music you would like to hear as you live your day.  Think carefully about the sort of music you would like to add to the symphony of life.  Tune up your heart, let your footsteps be light, and sing your truth for all the world to hear.  There is a spot waiting just for you in the orchestra.  Play your heart out, and don’t forget to dance.