The Power of the Pause

Hello, Cadre. Welcome into Safe Harbor. Welcome into the Pause. Today, as we talk about the abundance of the pause, may I demonstrate for you musically what a pause sounds like when you hear this? It's a John Denver tune. You will hear some intentional rests. Pardon me, I knew I should have had water out. By way of introduction, if you don't know me, I'm Kathy and I go by Speak Wonder as my Cadre handle. Andy Joyful is here. Carrie is here. Welcome in. So good to see you. Rose. Hi. We, meaning myself and the orchestra, are preparing for a concert on Saturday.

We are complete string ensemble. That means there are no woodwinds or brass. So it's a little bit of a unicorn orchestra in that we're all strings completely. And so we've been rehearsing. Rehearsing. I had two ladies over here in my apartment last evening for a string sectional, meaning we cut away and we practice the hard parts, hoping that we'll show up ready to perform on the night of the concert. Dan Griffin. Hello, Carrie. Hi, Rick. Junk food junkie. I might have to reach for my water. But let me start by demonstrating the pause musically, which is a rest.

A musical rest. Work. Yeah. Did you hear those pauses? I have one more tune for you. Try to get this much down every day. Still getting over a cold. The power of the pause. Pause for refreshment. That was unplanned. Okay, I have a hole collection of John Denver tunes. I'm going to play just a portion, just a tiny portion of the Ashokan Farewell, my stand partner from orchestra. His name is Dan. He played this tune, Ahsokan Farewell. Do I have to reschedule? No, I'm not going to. Gonna power through.

Hey, thank you for your comments. Sounds like you need a cup of hot tea with honey. That's my next thing. Exactly. And I have honey in the cupboard. Dan, my stand partner, he is a Civil War reenactor. He's also a violinist. And he played the Ashokan Farewell in a graveyard for an event for a Civil War gathering. He said it was haunting. And it. It took them back in history. Music can do that. So here's a Shokan farewell with a pause here and there so you can hear the power of the rest musically.

Leah Shokin, Farewell. Do you like my violin? I have two violins. And this one was made by Eleuthier in where I live, near Erie, Pennsylvania. This is Curly Maple. And this was his first project. And so his name is inscribed in here. It says number one. And I have. It has a very nice voice. So thank you for indulging me. Thank you, Mel Myers, M. Dean. I always say, music therapy for the soul. Thank you, junk food. That is so true. Thanks, Carrie. So glad you guys are with me today. And listening for the intentional notated in a musical score pause.

I thought about what is the pause and why is it so powerful? Dan, who is my stand partner, I mentioned he was kind of kibitzing or complaining the other day because there's one piece we play coming up this weekend at the concert, that for our section, the first violin section, we have a 12 measure rest. 12 measures where we have to sit and count three, four times. So we have to count to make sure we're ready to come in. And the conductor will cue us and we'll be ready to be ready. We need to be intentional about that 12 major rest, meaning that we have to count it out.

We have to listen to the others and be ready to come in and resume with the music. Not all rests are that long. Sometimes they're just a quarter note, half note. Sometimes they're just one measure. And they're intentional and they make the music magical. The rests are important. So I thought I'd start by defining the pause by what it isn't. The pause is not punishment. It's a respite on caregiver day, which is Thursdays. We need that self care. We need it every day of the week. We need to build it in.

I know some folks, in fact, I learned this when I was working full time. Some of my workmates would say, you know, I actually write in my downtime as though it were an appointment, you know, like an appointment with my supervisor or a doctor's appointment. It has that much weight and heft to it and that much meaning because it gets written onto your planner as downtime, a rest. And it is needed. It's never punishment. It is restorative. It's a respite. We all need respite. And oh yes, now we have freezing rain here in Erie.

It's just pounding my windows. So that is necessary. Sometimes the pause is imposed on us. I just came off of a two week cold and flu situation which grounded me on the sofa. And I was forced to watch Blue Bloods over and over, one of my favorite series. So I was put into a time of respite. Forced is too strong a word. It was my body telling me, hey, this is a sacred moment to take a rest, to take a step aside. The things will get done. The balls you drop, somebody else will pick up and life will Go on.

And that's sometimes a hard lesson. But pause is never punishment. It's a respite. Also, a pause is never static. It's active. Again, intentional. It's not static. It's active. And it's a type of living, organic thing in your day. So now I thought I'd tell you what it is. It is not punishment. It's respite. The pause is not static, it's active. The pause is a sacred interval. It's like a prayer or deep, cleansing breath or like the violin section in a composition or like, I don't know, like a bird in flight.

Pause has poetry to it, symmetry, intention. And you need it. And we all know that we need it. But I thought I'd stop by and remind you today. Hey, Yeah. A pause is like a cliffhanger for the audience's interpretation of what's coming next. Absolutely. You could almost feel the audience take a little breath. Or that anticipatory. There's a word. Anticipatory. Pause feeds into the audience, too. You can feel that. It's palpable. You can feel it in the theater when there's a scene and you don't know which way it's going to go.

Yeah. There's that hush before the curtain. And there's that part where we're all tuning up. We sound like a bellyache. We're all getting our tuning in order and. And then the audience recognizes that's a necessary part of the performance so that we'll sound all right musically. And there again is that hush before the conductor raises his baton and we begin. There's also that. Oh, I'm thinking of all these musical fun things. There's also that pause and hush when the piece is over and the audience decides it's time to applaud.

We hope they will. So. Yeah. Thank you for joining me. I'm going to have tea and honey, per your suggestion. I'm so glad that you all come along on this caregiver Thursday. A pause is not punishment, it's respite. A pause or arrest is not static. It's active. There are lots of things going on during your rest. There's beautiful music. There's so much happening. And in fact, your rest period, your 12 measure rest enhances the music going on around you. Listen for it. Let it give you life. And a pause is a sacred interval, very much like a prayer or deep cleansing breath or the flight of a bird or the voice of your Korean child on the phone.

Sail into safe harbor. And that was a little bit of courage for me to play my instrument live on the Cadre. I glad that you stayed with me. And I will see you next week in Safe Harbor. Bye for now. Take good care. Sip tea and pause it.