Letting Your Mind Wander

Last night CityMusic Cleveland, under the baton of James Gaffigan, presented an all-Beethoven concert at the stately and beautiful Stambaugh Auditorium. A free concert!

(Many thanks to PNC, Internet Data Management, Dana School of Music, Monday Musical and Stambaugh Auditorium for making this free concert possible.)

As I sat there listening to this beautiful music, my mind began to wander. I attend concerts, as I read books and watch movies, to enjoy and escape, not to critique. And invariably my mind wanders.

This is the thing—the only thing—that I miss about my 60-mile daily commute. I had so much time to think with all that driving. Think and listen to books and catch up with friends.

I find that, without so much time to think, my blog posts are scarcer and thinner of content. So it was fun to sit there and just watch my mind go where it wanted.

The summer I spent studying with Nadia Boulanger in Fontainebleau, France, I attended more concerts in a shorter span of time than at any other time in my life. I can't tell you the number of dresses I designed and rooms I decorated in my mind that summer. It was a wonderfully creative time.

Isn't the mind a wonderful thing? I've had a favorite saying for years—I heard it back when my sons were watching Sesame Street every day: "walking backwards through the cobwebs of my mind." I just love that saying. The mental image of trying to dig back to facts I once knew but now have faded is so apt, and a bit uncomfortable as I age!

This morning I have a new favorite saying, from the mouth of a very bright young lady and totally girly girl: Last night I sat on the floor, knitting, next to the bathtub as Ridley was taking her bath. She was telling me about her favorite book she reads at school. When she asked if I knew the book and I said no, she said, "Let me read it to you from my mind."

Doesn't that just make you want to leap for joy?!

Here's to having time to listen and hear and think and create. And read from your mind.

What's your best thinking time?