Harry Truman once said that listening to good music made him think of the way things ought to be, instead of the way they are. In the presence of music, we gain a taste of Heaven and Earth. Music is vitally important to our spiritual health: clearing the air, changing our mood, taking us to faraway places, revealing mysteries, calming the soul, allowing us true glimpses into the past.
Learning to love differently is hard
Love with the hands open, love
With the doors banging on their hinges
The cupboard unlocked, the wind
Roaring and whimpering in the rooms
Rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds
That thwack like rubber bands
In an open palm.
~ Marge Percy from "To Have Without Holding" in THE MOON IS ALWAYS FEMALE