This week, I’ve taken the time to reflect on the struggles of patience, while also embracing the beauty found when slowing down.

Today I want to share with you two albums that have helped me embrace the act of slowing.  The first is Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports” and the second are two pieces from Arvo Pärt’s composition “Alina”.  A little background:  Brian Eno is an artist, composer, producer (known by many for his production contributions helping shape the sounds of artists including U2 and Coldplay.  In addition, Brian Eno also has a history in multiple genres (pop/rock/classical) known as a fore-father of the ambient music genre.  Arvo Pärt is a German composer known for his contributions to the classical genre of music known as minimalism.

Both of these albums are instrumental, and both move very slowly.  Each album focuses on less notes serving as a meditation on these few notes (as opposed to music that is continually going different places).  The peaceful resonance in these albums take me to a place where I begin to enjoy being still and embrace slowing down.  These compositions help me acknowledge the importance of the space between two notes and resonance of sound.  When listening to these albums, I find that patience can actually be an enjoyable experience.

So when you have a moment, take some time to hear several of these pieces.  You don’t have to hear the whole album at once.  Just be still and listen for a few minutes.  It’s my hope that you are able to find the joy of slowing down and the peace found while patiently listening to this music.

Have a great weekend!

-jonathan
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