Thank you Beethoven

Have you ever turned on Beethoven and just immediately felt all that was weighing down on you melt away into some distant land oceans apart from you? I guess that I am just odd, but Beethoven has that effect on me.

If Beethoven was alive today, I suspect he would have been ridiculed and certainly boxed into the eccentric category. His cantankerous nature would have had him at odds with most of us, except perhaps my three year old who loves him.

If you turn Beethoven on, my little hedgehog becomes a joyful, truly delightful antithesis of himself. He will ask to sit on your lap, will clap his hands, and squeal in delight. He might even leap around in circles on the floor.

Beethoven produces the same reverberation in my own heart. I listen to his music and I am calmed, yet animated. I start looking for blue skies despite gloomy clouds, and I dream of playing the viola or violin again. Then I start plotting how I could get lessons and where I could hire a viola. I imagine myself as cultured and refined. Actually, truly sophisticated. After all, my Grandmother did come on the boat from the Land of Proper English;) Then my children bring me back to reality - a reality I completely love.

Truly, Beethoven was brilliant. I'm beholden to God for His magnificent handiwork in Beethoven because here I sit centuries later, a common housewife and mother completely unmusical, able to experience this great source of joy simply, and easily.