Foundations: Deepest Chord

Can you think of certain songs or pieces of music in which you become aware of the very lowest bass notes that are being struck through the piece?  Very often, we can enjoy music and barely notice, if at all, those base notes, and yet, if they were removed, the music would feel shallow, light, detached and aloof.

Recently in a celebration at the White House of the American genre known as gospel music President Obama noted in his remarks that this style of music had its roots in slavery and grew in and through the civil war and civil rights era of our history.  He observed that while it has evolved over time that its heart has remained true. “It still has an unmatched power to strike the deepest chord in all of us, touching people of all faiths and of no faith,” the President said.

Deepest chord.  Whether you identify with gospel music or not, I wonder how you know your deepest chord.  I wonder how  you access your deepest chord.  I wonder these things because I know that our human experience is an ever changing experience.  It has highs and lows.  It can be filled with light moments and become an incredible pressure cooker of emotions and relationships.  When we find ourselves most tossed about, most pressed, most wounded, most frightened or angry or depressed:  how do we find that deepest chord within us that supports, that carries, that calms, that reassures, that centers, that helps us find our way again?

Perhaps you know the answer to that immediately.  Perhaps you want to spend some time pondering that.  Perhaps you don’t know.  I invite everyone reading this today to respond–when you are ready, by hitting the comment button below and share however briefly how it is that you find your way to your own deepest chord.  You need not say more than a few words.  Share with this community how you get back to your deepest chord.  There are people reading who don’t know how to do that, who are struggling to do that, who have forgotten that they can do that, who need to be encouraged that doing that is really important to their lives.  We can share with one another that way.

Some 35 years ago, I learned rather by accident in a most desperate time of my life that if I would go outside (out of a building) and sit on the ground, touch the earth, touch grass, touch a tree, hold a rock, that soon, I would be back in my deepest chord.  That is still my favorite way to find my way back to my deepest chord.

How do you find your way back to your deepest chord? Please hit comment and share with us.

Bob Patrick

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