The rains have put me in the mood for music...
For the first time ever, today I truly enjoyed watching the rain fall in bucketfuls. And for the first time too, I listened to music all day as I worked, previously impossible for me to achieve together...and what's more, as I reached for my Rahim Alhaj Oud CD, I discovered an entire pamphlet inside which I'd completely missed on the umpteen occasions I previously heard this album! Not only did it contain a description of the Western equivalent of each Iraqi Maqam (or scale) for every song, I found in it Rumi's beautiful words that seem to so aptly convey what I feel today...
And so I share, this.

Don't worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
It doesn't matter.
We have fallen into the place
Where everything is music.
The strumming and the flute notes
Rise into the atmosphere,
And even if the whole world's harp should burn up, there will still be
Hidden instruments playing...

- Rumi

I've never been one to like cold rainy days or grey skies. But I must admit, yesterday evening as I waited for the evening shuttle, I was stunned by how beautiful the sky looked as the heavens prepared to pour down upon us....the silvery grey of a dozen clouds gathered together, the evening sunlight gleaming just beneath, slowly receding from the horizon...the trees bereft of their leaves, bare, like ivory against this backdrop...
So stark and yet so arresting in its beauty...ah! creation! what a marvel it is!