Heartbreak I will Never Know....

It has been too long since I have found the space in this life of mine to write, though I have mused over many topics.  Tonight the urge was overwhelming, perhaps because of the pull to express the gratitude I feel.  

Having listened to a familiar aria from "The Merry Widow", I am instantly reflecting on the tears that fill my Dad's eyes when he hears beautiful music.  The heartbreak I will never know is to have lived without the stirrings that music creates in a persons soul.  I too feel the music and the words so deeply, even when the language is foreign!  Thank-you Dad!  

What occurs to me as well, is that this kind of appreciation and shared passion is not dictated by curriculum, nor studied in prestigious volumes.  It is the education of the soul and the shaping of values that create emotions like these.  Nurturing experiences that only humans can appreciate requires time, shared opportunity and space, relaxed surroundings and, apparently,  natural teachers.  The unexpected work that my parents took on when they sang in the car, over dishwashing and with choirs , family and friends was to instill in me and my siblings that music can stir the soul and color ones life throughout the decades.  

Dad, at 90 years old, no longer sings.  His fingers have forgotten how to manipulate the CD player or the radio which used to transport him to another time and setting via opera.  Though I find it so sad that he no longer seems to even miss the sound of music in the room, and forgets that the CDs and player are there for his use, I am grateful when I see that music still stirs his soul when I play it for him. 
 I am most grateful that the love of music has taken a stronghold in my own life and that of my children.  It feels as if an important part of Dad lives on in our souls and always will, first taught to him by his own parents and then passed on to me by him and my Mom.  There may not be many expensive heirlooms in our family home, but the love of music continues to uplift and transform my moments and days.  The legacy that Dad leaves will be first and foremost  that we humans are born to feel, to savor the beauty and pathos of life, to appreciate the intricacies of sensory knowledge and to find meaning in each and every experience which comes our way.  

I have been spared the heartbreak of a life without music.  I have been given a treasure beyond compare.  I sit here in a quiet and ordinary space richer than most can imagine, to have felt the shared awe of a beautiful aria with the best of teachers.