Does time ever seem to get away from you, like it does with me? I’ve become much better at managing my time, but I’d still like more of it! At times I feel I need to forget about time and be in the moment. I listened to Bach, my favorite composer, here in my kitchen last night. I danced in place to the rhythms of violin and orchestra, waiting for my dinner to cook.

It was a moment where I wasn’t doing work-related items or worrying, as the music director I am, about the instrumental parts for the guest musicians, or how to introduce a new anthem to the choirs, etc. Still I don’t listen to the radio as much as I used to. I am often using the silence to “center down” as Rev. John Lilly preached in a recent sermon. I liked his description of how to achieve introspection since it rang true to what I’ve long been striving for.

For a musician, I love silence. That desire comes partly from growing up in a dramatic environment with nine other siblings. We all just wanted to get away sometimes. Some more than others. I wanted peace and found it in silence as well as music. Occasionally it felt like I could find silence in music: I would lay on my bed in total darkness, listening to my stereo, imagining a scene world’s away. I found peace then. I pray to become that peace now.

 Music is also a form of prayer for me. And dancing. How I live my life is like a prayer. We speak a prayer out of all we are. Music, silence, dancing—they all ‘pray’ me. And time, at last, stands still as I rise on their wings.