Happiness is YOU.

Magical notes of Integrity

One of the strangest things I learned from my favorite piano instructor was just how important concise rhythm was. Okay, maybe that doesn't sound strange. Maybe what sounded strange was my ability to ignore the beat willy-nilly and leave my audience with whiplash! Maintaining accountability to the rhythm is ESSENTIAL to establishing an overall tempo.

It takes more than one note to set a tempo, in other words to recognize the speed with which the piece marches forward. But tempo isn't exactly the number of notes in a measure either. By emphasizing certain notes, we establish an overall ebb and flow to each turn of musical phrasing. We can feel a certain mood from it.

Is it more wrong or more right to play a rapid tempo vs. a glacial one? No. Is it somehow more or less mindful to be a busy bee or a soulful sloth? No. We each have a different personality.

Yet our personality is not the whole of who we are nor a static setting. So it also is NOT a "mistake" to slow down then or to speed up. We need those moments in life just as much as in music. Notice how "magical" moments fit well not only within the overall vibe of a score but also the shape of the journey. Just like musical notes, our everyday choices fit within the vibe of our growth, peace, and happiness. There's a direction to all of this, just as much as a reliable rhythm. There is an overall context that allows for flexibility even while beckoning you to accountability to the spark of joy within.

The life you are building is filled with layers of context, some you are only slightly aware of and others completely subconscious. By paying attention to our inner needs and desires, we find the pulse of our life. We come to accountability with our passions and potential and areas of needing to build new skills. Then we can learn whether the things we are doing or saying fit right within our tempo of happiness...or whether they weaken or derail who we are becoming.

If you were to create a symbolic notation for the music of your life, what symbols would you use? How would you describe the tempo of your happiness vibe?

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