The Melody of Lent

 

This week I invite you to lean in and listen to Yiruma, a South Korea-born piano player, whose music I find soulful and soothing.  As the notes of his instrumental pieces wash over you, I invite you each day to this prayer practice:

·        First, listen one time through the entire piece.  Pay attention to any emotion that is evoked or provoked from the piece.

·        Second, listen again, this time you may want to imagine a story that goes along with this piece of music – or write down words that stir and swirl in response.  One day this week, you may want to get out your crayons or colored pencils connecting your hand to the melody of the music.

·        Third, enter a period of silence.  Attend, pay attention to the reverberations of both the music of Yiruma and the response from your soul sit side-by-side.  What awakens within your awareness of this moment? 

The first piece from Yiruma is entitled, Kiss the Rain.  I invite you to click on the link above and enter prayerfully and purposefully into this time.

When I listen to this piece, I hear the cascading notes like rain splattering and splashing on the cement.  I sense the waves of notes washing over me meeting me in both the peacefulness and pain of the soul – which often sit side-by-side.  I imagine being out in the rain, soaked and saturated, in that moment feeling refreshed and renewed.  After repeating the chords a few times, around the 2:45 mark in the video, there is a crescendo, a build-up, like a storm letting loose.  Until that tension is resolved and released.

This piece makes me wonder if Noah ever went out and kissed the rain on the ark?  Or a farmer, who after days of a drought, when the land is cracked and craving water, goes out to kiss the rain when it finally starts to fall.

Where does your life need to be saturated and soaked right now by the sacred?

What would it look like to kiss the rain?  Or, better yet, what would it feel like?

What colors from your crayon box would you use to color this picture?  What words surface as you lean in and listen to this beautiful piece?  Feel free to post in the comments.

Prayer: God of rainfall that renews and revives us, wash over us this day with Your presence that meets us where we are and guides us each second of this day.  Amen.