Week 6 - Resonance in my world:

A few years ago, on a whim, I rented a cello for several months. It was so completely random, and it made me so happy. I am not a musician, and I had never had any interest whatsoever in stringed instruments like violin or cello. Aside from a 6-month flirtation with taiko drumming, I hadn’t played an instrument since I quit band in fifth grade. But I had recently decided that it would be fun to learn the guitar - easy to get ahold of, relatively inexpensive, and that almost everyone I know plays at least a little. Soon after telling a friend about this idea, I was raving about seeing a concert by Zoe Keating, an experimental cellist whose music I love. When my friend responded with the suggestion that I take up cello instead, I brushed off the idea as silly... and then found myself two days later in Best Music renting a cello. Why did this happen? I chalk it up to resonance. I simply loved how the low vibrations made me feel, particularly in my chest. I still had no interest really in learning how to play, but I really wanted to explore the sound and resonance. Although the cello ultimately went back to Best, in this, at least, I was successful. And it led to further explorations in resonance and sound healing, including learning to use tuning forks on the body, which eventually contributed to my decision to attend school in Chinese medicine.

Resonance is a concept that appears on my mindscape rather often. Resonance is not just sound. I think/talk about "resonating" with people, with ideas, with places. I think it stems in part from having done a lot of qi gong and tai qi, becoming attuned to how flow feels in my body, how everything feels to my body.  Perhaps I like the word 'resonance' because it sounds a little less 'California' than talking about vibes, but that's ultimately what it's about for me. Vibration. But perhaps 'resonance' is a more precise description, too, because, as Webster says, it's really about about vibrational relationships - "resonance: a sound or vibration produced in one object that is caused by the sound or vibration produced in another".