Day 74: Retreat Street

I just got back from a retreat this weekend in Dalmally, somewhere out in the west of Scotland, about three and half hours from Aberdeen. It was great. Very Holy Spirit-filled and rejuvenating. And a very worthwhile distraction from the coursework I need to finish before Friday. It's just like the old days, of late nights and procrastination. Except there are no old days; those are the only days.

Real quick I'd just like to say, if you haven't gotten the picture already, that this blog has pretty much become not as much a journal for where I travel, but more a glimpse into the travels of my mind. How lucky you are, readers;)

Anyways, it was a great weekend full of many great things, notably, great words and conversations shared.
I won't go into too much, because I just don't want to right now right here, but please, ask me about it:)
Why I wanted to post a quick blog tonight: on the way home I was having a conversation with my friend John about music and its healthiness for body, mind, and soul, and I was kind of musing in my head while talkin. So, because it is the life I lead to be constantly inundated with The Sound of Music, a quote from the movie came into my head, and I had a short moment of inspiration. The quote was this one:

Captain Von Trapp: You brought music back into the house. I had forgotten. 

I thought of it, because it is the Captain beginning to soften, to realize his affection for Maria, and to heal from the wounds from his dead wife, all by the gift of music. 
Music can help in so many situations: it can break the ice when there's a group of people together who don't feel really comfortable, it can lift spirits instantaneously when you're having a bad day, it can bring back memories from places or people you didn't even remember you remembered anymore, it can set the mood, it can make the party. All of these things I knew and recognized about music. But in this recent instant of meditation on this quote I made a new realization.
For a man to say to a woman that she has brought music back into his house, his life, became translated by me into the most romantic phrase ever. Music, as a universal way to communicate feelings, particularly love, becomes a metaphor for Love in this quote. 
She brought Music into the house, but what she really brought was Love. 
I want a man to fall in love with me for the Music I bring into his life, for the songs that fill his heart when I'm with him, for the melodies he can't erase from his mind or his lips when he thinks or speaks of me. I want the love I have with a man to be his favorite song, listened to everyday all day not exhausted, sending shivers down his spine when he hears it, and bringing tears to his eyes when he feels it. I don't even know if boys cry when they hear music, but I do sometimes, and I'm not talking about the songs that sing of little daughters diagnosed with cancer or other sad stories, I'm just talking about crying for the music in and of itself, I don't even know why, it's just all the sudden I have tears rolling down my face because the notes strike my heart in such a peculiar, previously unfelt way. To be able to affect someone the way music can affect someone is what romantic love should be.

"You brought music back into the house. I had forgotten. Fraulein, I want you to stay. I ask you to stay."

If this isn't an obvious profession of his love, I don't know what is. In that moment, I would have died. O Captain, my Captain. 

Oops, sorry for that diary entry.
But music. Yeah. 

Song of the day: You Never Let Go-Matt Redman. That was quite the jam this weekend, and it had been so long since I had p&w'd it up.

P.S. SORRRRYYYYY for not posting any pictures with this, because honestly Craig Lodge, the retreat house in Dalmally was located so beautifully in a valley surrounded by snow-covered mountains and meadows with sheepies all over. It was wonderful. Sorry.