Grace Has Brought Me Safe Thus Far
Little Faith

In a Rest

Music in a rest poemMusic in a Rest

 

Rest in music

In spite of my pronouncement that there is music in a rest to hear, I offer a counter view:

“There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it.” ~ John Ruskin

And further, he says ...

“In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by rests, and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the theme. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator."

"How does the musician read the rest? See him beat the time with unvarying count and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between."

"Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not to be dismayed at the rests. They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we look up, God himself will beat the time for us.” - John Ruskin

How does this apply to your life today?

Where in the score are you?

Where are the sounds?

Where are the silences?

What is happening in those silences?

Are there multiple measures of rest or is something at a grand crescendo?

Perhaps you do not have the whole score and the conductor is only giving you a page at a time.

 

Sometimes it is simple.

C major scaleC major scale

Sometimes it is complex.

 

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