Sometimes, especially when seasons change, I accidentally only listen to classical music. This week, a classical mood has intersected with a tepid-but-persistent cough/cold.
As a balm, I put together a playlist of energetic classical gems. Take a listen (and turn up the volume**) if you are a big dork like me and you need a little lift to get through the work day.
** Caveat: It's better not to listen to orchestral music at all than to listen on tinny speakers or headphones. Just saying.
It's Saint Patrick's day so I'm thinking about my trip to Ireland last summer and I'm listening to this B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L song on repeat by Irish musician Hozier. Press play.
My friend Lauren and I drove our little red rental car from the very top to the very bottom of the country.
I'd give anything for a repeat this summer.
“Happiness is not something that you can find, acquire, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Some of those conditions are within you, such as coherence among the parts and levels of your personality. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you: Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger. It is worth striving to get the right relationships between yourself and others, between yourself and your work, and between yourself and something larger than yourself. If you get these relationships right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge.”
Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
“Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
- Henry Miller
