I'm a bit
of a musician. I've played the piano for as long as I remember, played clarinet
for a number of years in high school, I sing, and I’ve written songs. I like to
think I'm one of those people with a fairly good sense of timing - you know, someone
who can clap in church to encourage the musicians out the front, and not put
them off with faulty counting :)
In music,
rhythm is regarded as the pattern of sounds and silence; how the beats are
structured decides the rhythm. Tempo is slightly different, in that it refers
to the speed of the music, whether it is fast, medium or slow. This has to do
with the number of beats per minute: allegro (which means fast, bright or
quickly) is played at 120-168 beats per minute (bpm), whereas adagio (which
means to be played at a leisurely pace) is around 54-56 bpm. It’s often the tempo that can determine the
mood of a piece of music – you don’t tend to hear too many fast-paced sad
songs.
Lately,
I've been learning in my writing journey about writing rhythms: the ebbs and
flow of creativity and marketing and how that relates to productivity and just
plain life.
Sometimes
we have seasons of creativity, where the words are begging to get onto the page
(or into the computer). Other times it's more of a challenge, like when we feel
stuck in a box with no whisper of inspiration to be heard, when every sentence
written feels like it deserves some form of chocolate reward. Sometimes we
might move into a period of promotion, when selling ourselves is considered
necessary (even if we find it painful – hello, fellow introverts). At other
times, life—by way of family, health, work—can feel like it’s hijacking our
writing journey, and we may feel like we stutter to a stop, or at least to an
uncertain pause.
I’m
learning that whatever the season I’m in, whether it be the very, very fast pace
of ‘prestissimo’ when words are pouring forth furiously and deadlines and
marketing demand an accelerated pace (hello: where I feel like I've spent most of my year!), or the quieter times of ‘calando’ when
circumstances slow and it feels like one can breathe again, the most important
thing is to keep listening to the rhythm orchestrated by God. God is always
constant, like a metronome that sets the tempo and regulates our rhythms. This means we need not panic when life feels like it’s getting out
of control, nor despair when it seems like nothing is working out.
God’s character
never falters, His promises remain steady, and as we read His word and listen
to His leading, we can be assured by the fact that He knows the various rhythms
of our life. God is right there with us, a steadying heartbeat, in the ‘presto’
and the ‘tardo’ and all the other tempos of our writing journey, and our lives.
