A moment of silence please

G, silence, D, silence, A, silence, E, silence. 'One more time but pay attention to the silence, it exists, it has a beginning and an end, it has a specific time and duration, do not skip it. During the rest, think about the right arm position, change strings by lifting up or pulling down the elbow, that's right, there we go...' It's my second violin class. Yes, I finally took a step forward and decided to try my luck with this instrument. Although many say it's 'the hardest' of all the instruments, it's the one that makes that string in my soul vibrate every time I hear it. What I never thought was, that it would touch a string in my conscience as well. 'The rest –explained my teacher– is a note all the same and it's part of the music like any other. To skip it is the same as skipping a piece of the music.' Just imagine a sheet music played all straight, without respecting tempos and silences. Most probably, the song wouldn't even be recognizable. It would be a succession of sounds that do not transmit any feeling or significance. Dry, cold, monotonous. Similar to a letter written without respecting spaces between words or punctuation marks. How many times do we skip the silence thinking that it doesn't have any significance or importance? Thinking it's a distraction, a waste of time in the sheet music of our lives. We jump from note to note, from lento to allegro without even caring to breathe in between. In our daily routine we often encounter ourselves running from one place to another, occupying ourselves with the urgent before the important, we program ourselves in auto pilot to do what we have to do to scratch off 'the list' without ever stopping to answer 'Ayeka?”–Where are you? for once. How often do we only find the time to reflect on what's really important in life when we're forced to confront those 'moments of truth'? When we're on the lower side of the wheel, after knocking our heads against the wall from running around so much. Could that just mean we're swallowing up the silences? Or accelerating the tempo when not paying attention to the conductor? Tonight after some very tiring and specially devastating few days, let's stop for a moment and consider where we are. Have we moved forward as a people? Or are we in a roundabout without even realizing? Let's use a moment of silence to consider which string we are playing our melody on. Have a quick glance at the conductor, what is he saying? Are we in harmony? Have we dedicated some time to the ones we love most? When was the last time we assured our love and affection to our loved ones? When was the last time we stopped to appreciate and thank for the countless blessings we enjoy every day? Should we inject energy to those everyday 'notes'? Get out of the routine and refresh the melody with new impetus or relax the tension and make every note sound clear and sharp, using the whole bow for a complete sound in time and quality? 'For everything under the sun there is a time and a moment... a time to weep and a time to laugh...' (Kohelet 3:4)

A moment of silence please

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A moment of silence please

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