THE MUSIC IN YOU

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that most people die with the music still in them. Let this not be the epitaph written on the cold slab of your tombstone.

Make melodies, release the song within your heart, and compose symphonies; your soul-song resounding in glorious crescendo.

Organise a concert, let people attend and appreciate the creative deposit in you. If you have to solo, capture the audience; if you’re in an orchestra, synchronise with others. If you’re the conductor, carry everybody along; artistes and audience together. Appreciate them, but do not depend on their applause.

Respect your contemporaries, though obscure they may be. Shoot the limelight; encourage the newcomers, for only polished stones can turn out to be diamonds. But remember, that beyond the curtain, fame, and the limelight, lies tons of hard work.

You’ve got to be comfortable with yourself; to sit down, work, practice and perfect the creation of your own heart-song. You have to be proud of yourself but also have great confidence in the awesome talents that God has blessed you with. And if you trust God with your gifts, you will not be too ashamed or proud to share.

Find time alone beyond the limelight and applause, to make music on your own, for you, and appreciate it on its own merit, rejoicing in your private achievement.

As you strike a chord on your piano, as you strum your guitar, play your drum, sing a note or even tap your feet, enraptured and captured by the beauty of another’s music, be grateful that you can.

We cannot all do all, but let the little individual melody you make burst forth like a brilliance of vivid colours in a rainbow, and as we continue to make our own melodies, an orchestra is formed and everyone is caught up in breathless wonder, at the beauty of togetherness.

Life is a stage; perform and do your best. Life is a sea; sail your way through. Life is a vacuum; fill it with your own heart-song and flavour the generations yet to come!