Musical Melancholy and the Holidays

The coun­sel­ing load picks up this time of the year. Peo­ple often feel guilty for not being per­fectly happy dur­ing the hol­i­days. In truth, the hol­i­days trig­ger a vari­ety of emo­tional and spir­i­tual ele­ments that range from hope­less to sub­lime. It is as if some­thing is stir­ring all of the yearn­ings of the soul at once. Expect peo­ple to be at their best and their worst this time of year. Most are blind­sided by their own inner tur­moil. They some­times catch them­selves laugh­ing and cry­ing at the same time. The trees have lost their leaves, but the houses are dec­o­rated with lights — a sort of mixed sig­nal to the prim­i­tive self.
Deep inside, the Win­ter Sol­stice, Christ­mas, and New Year’s all call for a life review. The Christ­mas tree is a pretty good sym­bol to get it started, so are the long shad­ows and colder days. The low sun gives a sense of the entire day being early morn­ing or late evening — times when the soul is most prone to its own vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and reflec­tions. In spite of nature’s cues to slow down and reflect, we hurry around with all of the tasks of our reg­u­lar work, plus all that hol­i­day events and duties add. No won­der the “hol­i­day blues” hit us so hard.
Lately, I have been putting one semes­ter to rest and start­ing the stud­ies for the next one. Next semes­ter I am teach­ing “Music and Empowerment” — one of my favorites. So, I have been down­load­ing music for the course — at least that is what I started to do. I have got­ten a bit dis­tracted into down­load­ing and play­ing all sorts of songs that have cov­ered my half-century plus of exis­tence. It is becom­ing a kind of life review via music. It is amaz­ing how songs, from child­hood to the present, play in our heads with eter­nal qual­i­ties. They are more than nos­tal­gia, they are the unique lan­guage of a par­tic­u­lar being. No two peo­ple have exactly the same pre­ferred music list.
I am hav­ing less of the hol­i­day blues this year, because I am inten­tion­ally work­ing on a process that addresses the life review of the sea­son. Life! What a trip! Even the musi­cal melan­choly of the sea­son speaks to a depth of soul and an eter­nal jour­ney marked with songs. Pay no atten­tion if you hear me hum­ming. I have a thou­sand songs for the soul to remem­ber the next few weeks.