Arthur Rubenstein was once asked by an ardent admirer: “How do you handle the notes as well as you do?” The pianist answered, “I handle the notes no better than many others, but the pauses – ah! That is where the art resides.”
The pauses in Rubenstein’s music is akin to the “white spaces” in printed material, or the part of the page that is left unfilled. As I write a brochure or flyer, I struggle to leave in white pace, as my desire to fill the page with words and images drives me.
I’m struck that my life contains the very same struggles. My days are so filled with activities, conversation, driving, working, doing, endlessly doing, that I rarely allow “white space” to exist in my day. And yet it may be in the white space that the meaning in my activities emerges, as in the pianist’s pauses being the true expression of the art form.
I tend to entrain with the activities, the “notes.” What if I changed my approach and entrained with the pauses?
Entrainment. What is it? Entrainment is the process by which the natural rhythms fall into synchronization with each other. In his book Timeshifting, Stephan Rechtschaffen tells us that entrainment is one of the great organizing principles of the universe, as inescapable as gravity. Entrainment is a well accepted concept in the worlds of the physical and natural sciences, but entrainment in every-day terms is less widely discussed. Yet we see the results of this happening every day, and it can drive us to lives our daily lives in ways that don’t really serve us well.
When I take the time to meditate, walk outdoors, or write in my journal I entrain with the “pauses,” as Rubenstein would say and there is magic to be found here. When I spend time with girlfriends talking about my hopes, my journey and my inner life, I am satisfied in a way that is too rarely felt.
Together we can create a pause in our busy lives; together we can invest time in the “pauses” of life, and we can entrain with a different rhythm… sisterhood, spirit and a little chocolate.
If you would like to comment or engage in a conversation related to this topic, then click on the white comment envelope with the pencil next to it. We love to hear what you are thinking!
Posted by Sue Blaney, Magic Party Council Member
