With the heat and being 35 weeks pregnant, we took the occasional little break to sit down and rest our (my) tired feet. Whilst walking around the city we came across a group of four men playing the violin, keyboard, cello and double base. Together they played well known classical pieces which sounded beautiful so we decided we would have one of our little breaks and enjoy the music. We ended up staying for over an hour! (We probably would have stayed longer but they finished playing).
While we were enjoying the music Ethan and I also watched the different people that went by and both noticed something interesting. There were lots of families with young children that walked past and almost every time a young child would walk past they would slow down and only turned away from the musicians once their necks could not turn back enough to see them. Often however, the parents didn't seem to notice the child's reaction, let alone notice the music. This was the same for the majority of adults, they didn't seem to notice the beautiful music at all as they were too busy getting on with what they were doing (shopping for most people). The children, though being very young (often around 2 or 3) seemed to notice that something beautiful was being created by those musicians.
The difference between the children and adults got me thinking, I wonder if we allow ourselves to be so busy that we don't appreciate the beautiful things that our around us. Ethan and I were in no rush and the young children were not concerned about quickly going from one shop to the next. There were also a number of older people who would stop and listen for a while.
I wonder if the busy lives that we lead in this generation have caused us to 'tune out' the beautiful things that the world has to offer, particularly with the distractions of mobile phones etc. I wonder if we have taught ourselves to get on with our hectic lifestyles rather than to slow down and be able to open our eyes and ears to all the beautiful things that we are surrounded by but don't let ourselves appreciate. I wonder what things I've missed out on that could have enriched my life just that little bit more because I was too 'busy' to take the time to notice it. It reminds me of the article I read* about a professional violinist who busked in disguise in a busy American metro. Normally people would pay a lot of money to attend his concerts, however out of the 1100 people that walked past him only 7 stopped to listen to this FREE performance. I bet there were a good few people who kicked themselves for not stopping to listen to him once it came out in the papers. It just goes to show what we miss out on when rush from one thing to the next. I know I'm going to try and take life a little slower (or maybe stay taking it slow, pregnancy seems to do the slowing down for you) and let myself appreciate the beautiful things the world has to offer :)
* this is the article http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2007/apr/18/joshuabellnoordinarybusker
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| This is a big post office apparently! |
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| Us enjoying the music |
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