It’s the deepest, darkest part of winter.  It’s cold.  Spring feels like it will never come.  Life is difficult in general, and sometimes really whacks one in the face.  What do we do when this concatenation of suck happens?  I will tell you what we do.  We square our shoulders, count our blessings, tend to our loved ones, and attack the task at hand with even more zeal than before.  Thank the good and gracious Whomever for music, upon which we can rely to be an indefatigable crutch.  This movement from Camille Saint-Saens’s organ concerto is one of the most joyously bracing pieces ever written, and is tailor-made for those moments when you need a pep talk, and/or a sonic kick in the pants.  It has it all: the alarm-clock beginning, the triumphant horns, the gorgeous melody, and the sympathetic minor key interludes that assure you that others have seen the same kind of trying times you’re experiencing, and not only lived through them, but, ultimately, thrived.  It’s pieces like this that inspired me to write this blog in the first place so that I could share them.

“Don’t turn away.  Keep your gaze on the bandaged place.  That’s where the light enters you.”

– Rumi