There's nothing that makes me happier in the winter than watching the clock turn to 9pm and knowing that I can go to bed. The darkness is overwhelmingly boring at times and there's only so much to do inside the house. Of course we all know that's a lie, but the darkness does that, doesn't it? Makes us unable to see the light, the possibility in the hours in front of us.
By 9pm I have done my hour on the treadmill, 15 minutes of the twisty turn (I think that deserves it's own blog next week)made and eaten dinner, maybe taken a bath and read a book, perhaps thrown in a load of laundry, done the dishes (although since the kids have been off in college, my husband has graciously taken them over), cleared my desk of a few sheets of paper in the effort to clean it off entirely (even as I sit at it now there is still a pile of mail, Bookpage magazines from the library and some W2s stacked precariously next to me), walked aimlessly around the house thinking of everything I should be doing but can't find the motivation to do s, and written one or two items I need to remember to get next week when I go to the grocery store (already knowing full well that I will forget the list and forget the items).
But then there's MASTERPIECE, PBS's greatest of greatest gifts. I prop my pillows, snuggle under the covers (hoping my dog, Jane Austen, has done her due diligence and slept at the foot of the bed to preheat it for my toes) and turn on the television. The music comes: "Fanfare Rondeau." Has there ever been anything that grabs more than this (Ok, years ago, the theme song from West Wing gave me Pavlovian responses)?
I know nothing, let me stress that again, nothing about music. I can't tell you a C note from an F minor (does an F minor even exist in the musical scale), but I know how I FEEL when I hear Masterpiece Theater prelude...I'm going with the holy-ish moniker because the instruments bring me there...into a holy space. In the 6 seconds the song plays, it really can't be longer than that, my soul calms and I'm filled with something I can only refer to as hope.
It's crazy how music does that; it's magic really. It elevates and lifts you to another plane, so quickly and so viscerally. A transformation.
And then the music morphs into the show...Call the Midwife, All Creatures Great and Small, Granchester, Endeavor, The Indian Doctor...(PBS Passport lets me what them whenever I want- every one should support Public Broadcasting)...nothing better. Yes, the nine o'clock hour makes everything right with the world. And until daylight staves off the dark, I say, continue on "Fanfare Rondeau"!
(take a listen!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZukLuZQeNHo