"Eyes are the windows to the soul" ~Unknown

I disagree.

There's just something about music that can speak so eloquently.

I love music. It's one of my joys in life, along with (have you guessed?) writing. The thrill I feel when I hear a tune for the first time that... how to put it without sounding ridiculously cheesy?... connects with me. Funny that, as a writer, I connect quicker with the melody - not the lyrics - of a song.

Music touches you in some innate way, more than anything else ever could. Beyond the most poetic words and the loveliest expressions, music speaks to the human soul the most profoundly. Music inspires; it gives and it takes. It needs no language; it is.

It's mysterious - one melody is put together to form something beyond what words can say. Tiny atoms are thrown together, in this cosmic universe, without accident to create something beautiful.

But... couple the music with words, and you have something that can give warmth and melt a frozen statue.

It's strange what music can do. It can throw me into a completely different mood, or I can lose myself in it. One instance, late at night, one song even made me cry. Sad songs can make my heart ache; the voices that sing are filled with such an aching and longing that I can't help but feel it too.

The deep chords, the right instruments, and the pure notes, and an expressive voice can do wonders. I can easily lose myself in music, however lame my musical taste (I can't help my pathetic taste). Lots of times, I will just zone out when I listen to music. Why?

It reaches somewhere deep inside me, past my subconscious, into my core - into what gives me hope, sadness, what makes my heart weep or leap for joy. Somewhere, the music rushes down into my being, and releases my imagination. When I hear good music, my mind goes soaring. Bits of stories, flashes of feelings, snippets of emotions, even vivid colors - I see these, in my mind's eye, as different pieces capture different parts of me.

But what intrigues me is that these feelings and emotions aren't mine. They belong to the writer of such a piece. How can one being pour so much of his heart and soul into one chord, one progression of notes, one resounding chorus, so that the listener feels what they feel? And so acutely?

The writer and listener both, for one short moment in eternity, transcend time and space and beat with one heart.

That, truly, is the essence of being human.