Sound Is a Medium for Meaning
“People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. What we seek is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane have resonances within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
-Joseph Campbell
Humans constantly look for higher meaning through sound.
We look for music to move us, console us, make sense of us, and transport us. We look for quiet to rejuvenate and get clear. We look for sound to help us connect or disconnect.
Sound is a universal medium for connection—It resonates within our inner being and lived reality. Sound fills and inhabits spaces that our eyes, soul, mind, and body can’t reach on their own. Sound reveals how it’s up to us to both sense and make sense. Revealing what is charged, what is regenerating beauty, what is brimming with aliveness.
Listening for our very own resonance.
What if meaning is not something you find, but something you allow? Something you tend and stay open to. You prepare so that when you meet it, you are ready to receive it and reciprocate its rhythm—to create something out of that feeling or simply be with that aliveness. Allowing meaning to settle in its soil so you have fertile ground to move from when you’re ready.
What if opening ourselves to meaning is more of a loving posture, rather than breaking our wills, elbows, and knees from the treadmill of searching? What if listening deeply is a less tiresome path? Not retiring to a passive state, but rather letting go of the belief that searching for meaning implies a state of lack. Because in reality, there is no deficit of meaning or aliveness—the state of lack is often in our capacity to notice and to listen. The deficit lies in our attention, in our ability to choose what we want to focus on at any given moment. If we are to perceive what matters most to us, then we must make space to open ourselves to listen.
Were do you think you will find what makes you come alive? Anywhere but here, now, in a life other than your own? The thing is: when we start to open, listen, and make space to notice the richness in both beautiful and unbeautiful states—things begin to become clear. The reciprocal nature between what we experience and what we make starts to form. We fall into place more and more when our footsteps become lighter. You are one person. I am one person. Tending more gently to the small things allows us to keep reaching for what is alive and close. The beautiful and creative gifts we hold are most available when we can be present to the moment we are in. Perhaps the invitation is to be present with goodness although we are aware of its opposite.
Despite everything, this is a listening path that helps us hold ourselves together enough to experience the rapture of being alive. The search for meaning is not distant, but rather so very close to us, within our very presence.
Viktor E. Frankl tells us,“the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day, and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.” Your unique sound, individual voice, and the small pieces you scoop into your hands and hold up to the light are overflowing with aliveness.
Allow the searching to take a deep and relaxed exhale. Take this as permission to listen and notice, to tune into the resonance that lives between your lived reality and the complex, internal you.
Pulse + Pause
In this moment, what is something that matters deeply to you? How can you nourish yourself with this sense of life?
What is your relationship with meaning? Do you feel a sense of pressure, lack, or distance from a sense of meaning in your life? How might you add compassion and gentle attention to how you look for meaning?
A blessing:
You are connected to all meaning
You are a well of unique meaning
Listen for the sounds that you add to this place
Even in the hollow moments your presence is enough
As you move toward your own joy, aliveness, and love, may you feel a growing connection to Everything.
