The Space Between

My least favorite part of learning to play the piano was music theory. While I didn’t mind sketching treble clefs and bass clefs, it was learning the terms and symbols that bored me to abandon the theory book on many afternoons. Avoiding the boring stuff worked until the day of my lesson and I’d be scrambling to finish my theory homework on the ten-minute drive to my piano teacher’s home. While this study went unappreciated as a third-grader, I now deeply appreciate the lingering wisdom from those frantic music theory sessions.

In music, rests are communicated in a variety of symbols with each communicating a different length of pause. Some rests are shorter than your breath. Other rests can last for multiple measures. These rests are just as musically moving as the notes. French composer Claude DeBussy wisely said, “music is the space between the notes.”  

Our lives can often look and sound like a piece of music. We move in rest, crescendo, forte, repeats, and codas. 

As you take your pause today in this reading ask yourself; what kind of rest do I need? 
Perhaps, it’s space to take a few deep cycles of breath.
Maybe, it’s a weekend break from chores and activities.
Or, It could be a nap.
What kind of rest is called for in the upcoming measures of your day? 

My prayer with you would be that you hear the space in between the activities and know you are loved and accepted in your rest. 

Nikki Sauter