MUSINGS...by Beverly Rieger

Several times in the last two weeks I have sat down to write and there was nothing to say. That is the same as how music comes to me. Sometimes there is no music to write....and when music wants to be composed, I feel it's presence. So here I am in the middle of the night again. I was awakened and there was nothing to do but get up. My mind wanted to tell me how much I had to do tomorrow and that I needed my sleep. However, this beautiful night with the movement of the moon toward full moon, and the frogs and crickets singing is supporting me to write. For the ancient Maya, frogs were a sign of new life. Linear time is a boundary for me. It binds me up into segments of days and weeks and limits me in my creativity. Who says that nights are for sleeping? Or that I need "x" amount of hours of sleep at a certain time? I am writing with my cup of hot, awesome coffee, my candle lit, and the music of the night with me. We are near the end of summer, and moving towa...

I just heard a train whistle outside my window. What is it about the early morning hours that makes the air so transparent that a train whistle will carry miles and miles and be heard by me? I love train whistles. They remind me of the wide open spaces that exist and the travel that can be had. (Don't I sound a bit like that guy on 60 minutes who reminisces for about 5 minutes at the end of the show?) These days have been very full and sometimes I wonder how it is possible to do everything that seems to be on my plate. When I find myself wondering "how? it's time to laugh a little and reconnect with all of the people that I love. Time is such a magic concept...it's very elastic...not linear....expansive.... I wrote a little piece on joy....and here it is: "Joy....running through the veins and arteries of my body....living in the smallest parts of my cells. It is there as one of the basic components of the physical body. Joy shows up in the elation felt by...

What a beautiful, magical evening. The moon is high and full, and the cicadas and frogs are singing. Here I am up again at 2AM....soaking it all up...and writing. Two years ago I wrote and recorded the Mystical Rose music for the season of Winter. The rose was photographed by Leah Welty-Rieger and placed within the white of ice and snow and fox by Susan Stamm. This music is very popular right now in August of 2009. "From the Heart of Everything" is a phrase that comes from the Maya and that term for God, or Source, or Light spoke to me immediately when I heard it. All that we are and create is cradled in the Heart of Everything. When I create music...especially individual music for people...I sometimes image myself as "falling" into the center of the rose.....into the Heart of Everything. The fox is a symbol in indigenous cultures of our ability to walk in many worlds. As human beings we are flexible that way. We are physical/spiritual. We have minds t...