Re-discovery, Re-imagining, Re-invigorating...Re-designing the self

It seems that this is the spring for Epiphanies for me. I've written about a couple of them earlier here, about my "I could have had a V-8" moments. And lately, I've had another major rediscovery, this one about music.

I wrote, from Florida, about being reintroduced to the primacy of water for me, as a meditative and spiritual need. I also wrote about the need to keep teaching.

Lately, I re-discovered my inner musical self.

It all started with a commitment to do SOMETHING again, to get active, and try to get my body healthy again.

I had fallen out of my Y swimming routine, for a gazillion different reasons (ok, excuses). I would start, again, next week, tomorrow, next month, after this (fill in the blank) is done.... And it just didn't happen.

And then, my good friend Christine, over at the Blisschick blog, started offering Yogadance classes.

I had to support her. She was living her bliss, growing her dream. How awesome was that?

So, I committed to going to a Yogadance class. First, one on Saturday. Then, after that incredible experience, I committed to a series of Thursday morning sessions. And I was hooked.

But what, exactly, was it that hooked me, you ask?

Was it Christine's enthusiastic teaching methods?
Was it the skillful blending of yoga techniques and dance movements?
Was it my friendship with Christine?

Well, I admit, all of those played a part.

But the clincher for me was.... are you ready? .... the MUSIC.

Soemthing wonderful happened to me when the music came on.

My body came alive.

I could not keep it still.

It took on a life of its own, moving, and swaying, and expressing in ways that I thought it had forgotten long ago.

I should have known this. I should have remembered. I was, after all, a dual major in Music and History in college. I am (albeit a rusty one) a singer. I play piano.

But somehow, music had lost its centrality in my life. Swept aside by so many other mundane concerns.

Then my husband bought my my very own 160gig iPod for my birthday. (He has 3 of his own - he's a real music junkie!) And I was like a kid in a candy store, going through our voluminous library of CDs trying to decide which ones to download first.

And last night, another miraculous thing happened. We went to hear Michael Buble in concert in Cleveland. This was our second Buble concert, and it was awesome.

Most incredibly, however, again my body MOVED. I. could. not. sit. still.

And I let my gaze roam over the crowd, watching other reactions to the music, and I was amazed at how many people were just sitting calmly in their seats, listening, like stone statues all in a row.

Sitting still? To MUSIC?

Such a foreign concept to me.

Music flows like the blood through my veins. It makes me move and sing and tap my toes with wild abandon. It frees my soul almost as completely as immersion in water, that I wrote about earlier. Music transports me, and makes me fly.

And I knew, without a doubt, that I can not let another day go by without music. It would be like denying myself water or air.

And this epiphany is like finally emerging into the bright sunlight after a long, treacherous trek through the deep jungle growth. Unfamiliar at first, my body embraced the warmth of the sun and arms stretched to the sky to bring it closer to my heart.

I'm reaching now, for my iPod, to help this body live again.

What makes you live? What have you let yourself forget? What will you embrace again to invigorate your soul?