Keeping Abreast

My irrepressible, enterprising  youngest son (a long way back, or he would never have agreed to me using this pic) employed his ever-present ingenuity to create a slingshot using one of my discarded post-breastfeeding C cup bras. I’d made it to a D while breastfeeding, and the decline thereafter was two cups down.

My boy spent most of his formative years creating mischief and mischievous Lego creations. Combining these talents on that unforgettable day, he looped the stretched straps over the posts of his bed and pulled the bra back, shooting Lego pieces he nestled in the cups across the room and into the passage.

You could say it was a booby trap for anyone walking past.

He was, and still is, abreast of anything and anyone. Nothing pulls him back for long. He knows how to catapult himself through life.

I hope you’re a bit more like me because this post will be of no use if you’re like him – perky with ne’er a sagging moment.

Me? I have droopy episodes, a few hours when my enthusiasm and self-belief and trust flags. I’ve come up with ways to lift and elevate myself when the doldrums drag me down.

One of the remedies is a Norwegian composer called Thomas Bergersen.

I stumbled upon the Two Steps From Hell channel when looking for something to take me out of my sabotaging mind. Rousing and deeply, ecstatically satisfying, this music gets my heart pumping and my imagination soaring. Just the ticket when I must reclaim my warrior spirit and feel the invincibility of realms beyond my ken and understanding. 

The deep, booming, powerful instrumentation, the sheer majesty and dynamism of the compositions, draw from my center an expanding, ballooning power.

I am free to imagine myself in an arena, on horseback (in reality, I’m a little afraid of horses), in an astonishingly inconceivable circus show, performing daring feats with fiery hoops and a herd of stallions and mares that move in unison at my slightest command.

It’s spectacular, I’m spectacular, and not at all down-to-earth.

That’s the point. Stay there long enough (3 – 4 pieces of bliss) and my body and mind and emotions have shifted, uplifted. The energy coursing through me is real, and it stays when I remove my headphones.

Ah, here’s another thing. Headphones. 

To benefit from this kind of music, I feel you have to listen to it using the very best sound system you’ve got access to. If such is not available, a good set of headphones that enhances the bass works. Headphones also allow for turning the volume up to a notch your neighbors might not tolerate if you’re playing the music through speakers.

One day, when I go to the mall to buy my top-of-the-range sound system, I’m going to test the sound quality with the first Thomas Bergersen piece I heard – Empire Of Angels. I listen to it so often it’s worn a groove in my psyche, like the stylus needle on old vinyls.

I fantasize about every head in the mall turning to the sound when the celestial horns and choir trumpet a crescendo at 2 minutes 28 seconds. I see collective goosebumps popping up from the Wimpy at one end, to Bargain Books at the other.

And that’s how I keep abreast of life when I’m sagging – High C’s is my perfect cup of perky. What is yours? Do you have a song or artist that shifts and uplifts you? 

Have a lilting week, and thank you for visiting.

xxx TeaShell