Nature and Music
Oliver Sacks was a doctor who specialized in neurological disorders and he wrote some amazing books about people with these brain malfunctions. He said that the two things he felt helped people with Alzheimers and Dementia was music and nature. He found that people in urban settings who couldn’t even tie their shoes could plant seeds and garden.
I would agree with him that nature and music will probably save us all. I just took a walk outside with my headphones on today. The sun was brilliant this morning and there are flowers sprouting everywhere. I haven’t walked in a few days so I was a little annoyed at first, but then I started staring at the green trees and bushes. I couldn’t help but notice the light filtering through the leaves. I listened to Stevie Nicks, Elton John, and the Lumineers.
I know I don’t listen to music you would call cool exactly. And if you are young enough you may have never heard of any of these people. I like strong vocalists and singers with really full voices. Music helps keep me alive.
Although one of my best friends says that all my music makes her want to kill herself. But I still maintain that sad music is the most meaningful. Because right now, I’m bored. I’m sitting in front of a kid who has to read a book for school. I feel like if it were appropriate for me to put on my headphones, my music would save me from the humdrum of this situation.
I need to snap out of it because all I feel like doing right now is sleeping or eating. Sometimes I think I’m very much like an infant with my primal needs. But I do also think if I was sitting outside, I would feel a lot better.
I started to garden a bit this weekend, and it was nice. I got a bit of a rash on my arms, but it went away with allergy medicine. It did feel good to touch the dirt and leaves. I put my suicidal music on and put down some mulch around the bushes.
I hate that I sit in a room with no window at my job. All I see are the white walls and some paintings with polka dots on them. I want to look at the sun right now. I think it would help me think. I want to dance a little to some groovy tune. Yes, I said groovy.
I need something to break this frustration and fatigue. I’m eating a snack but I feel like I need more. Writing is such a lonely profession. On the one hand, I feel like I’m having a conversation with the world, but it’s really a monologue. I’m spouting all my feelings and hoping someone wants to listen.
There’s no way to know for sure if you are writing something worthy of being read. Just like there is no real way of knowing you are living a life worthy of being lived. I guess we just have to do it and hope for the best. I’m getting off work early today, so I hope I use that time to at least sit on the deck in the backyard and breathe in natural air.
I hope I listen to all my favorite songs on the way home and sing along with all my might. Music and nature might be the only two real things in this world. I say that knowing full well that I have not been camping since I was in college. As much as I like nature, I also hate bugs. And sometimes sitting here in silence, well there is even a beauty to that.
I guess there are limits to what nature and music can do, but they are definitely life changing in many ways. I wish I could sit by the water right now and listen to ‘Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay’ by Ottis Redding. I just spent the last hour adding to a playlist I made on Spotify.
I will have to find a place under a tree to listen to my music.
I hope you will join me.
nina