3 months. A quarter of a year. And I still hurt. It has been about 90 days without our dog. I can’t say that it has been easy. The house is still full of silence, but occasionally, I will sit and play the piano. Now that the semester has finished, I have time to play the piano without feeling guilty about it. I usually warm up with some hymns from a hymnal my 7th grade religion teacher gave me, and then I’ll play some classical music or Broadway music. It is always a much-needed catharsis, and it always has been in times of trial.

I meant to post this last week, but as the way of writers go, nothing ever works out as planned. 

I had said in my tribute to him that silence can heal, and I still stand by that. But I also think that music can fix up the pieces that silence can’t get to. Music (at least the music I like) gives a sense of completion. There are chords, harmony, melody, and movements. The piece is a journey, and there is always some dissonance, but it just makes the consonance that much more satisfying.

For me, consonance came in the form of a service trip. I don’t think I’ll be able to capture exactly what that experience was like, but the bottom line was that I fell deeper in love with my faith. I went to Lourdes with the intention of renewing my faith of course, but I knew that expecting anything else would just be selfish. The week consisted of hard work, but the sore feet and tired muscles made it all worth it in the end. It was different than most service trips I hear about in different parts of the world. Other trips might clean beaches or interact with small villages, but Lourdes provides a wide variety of people to come together as children of God in a beautiful place where a humble saint lived.

The people who come to Lourdes are united by faith (read more about the pilgrimage), of course, and within that is the music that we use to celebrate. As many Catholics know, the word catholic translates to “universal”. I’m pretty sure that Latin is still the official language of the Church, so it’s amazing that all Catholics know the Ave Maria, Pater Noster, Regina Caelis, Tantum Ergo, and the likes. I also really enjoyed listening to familiar melodies being sung in different languages. The next language I want to learn is German. A close second is Spanish. I am happy to have recently found out that I have a good ear for languages, and working in the baths only affirms this discovery. Obviously, I didn’t know exactly what everyone was saying, but I picked up the meaning of what people were saying fairly easily. Either that, or I can pick up on social cues. Maybe a combination of both. I’ve always seemed to have an interests in language, and for a hot second my senior year of college, I considered studying linguistics. I’m not sure if I regret that or not, but I still take interest in it, so maybe it was one of those things that if I were to study it, I would begin to resent it. College does that to certain areas of study.

Anyway, I think anyone who enjoys music (or even anyone who doesn’t…although I cannot honestly think of one person in my life who dislikes music) knows that music in and of itself is a language. (In my humble opinion, music is more a language than dancing because most dancing involves music.) The concept of music transcends the need for words. In a really similar way, Latin prayers in the Church transcend the language barriers and allow the Church to pray together, and it is truly so beautiful to witness it.

As always, thank you for reading!

Bisous,