Where did the music go?

A few evenings ago, I saw a little girl in my apartment building dancing all by herself. Her head was shaking gently, she was twirling her torso and taking dainty little steps with her legs — all in rhythm to something only she could hear. For, when I came closer, I noticed that there was nothing external influencing her to stir this way — no earphones connected to some music player, no stereo playing songs. Nothing. Yet, she moved gracefully, her eyes open but focused on nothing. Astonished at this, I stopped for a minute and just stared at her.

The little girl was spellbound and completely oblivious to her surroundings. I don’t think she even noticed me standing and looking at her. She was in a world of her own as she swayed her body lightly to whatever it was that was playing in her brain. Yes, it must have been something pleasing for there was this happy smile on her lips and a look of absolute rapture on her face.

After staring at her for quite some time, I finally moved along but I could not help keep thinking about this little girl. She had looked so innocent, so carefree... so peaceful. Had I — when I was maybe around her age or later — ever been that untroubled? That childlike? Had I ever danced to a jingle that was only in my head? Where I forgot my environs and the people around me for a while and just let myself go out of sheer bliss? Just moved my body in time with notes that no one else could hear? I think I faintly did.

I feel that we come into this world with the melodies already there in our heads. Rhythms that would help us sway, move and dance as it did this little girl. Harmonies that would help us forget the outside world and instead enter into a world of joy. And, when we are younger, I guess happiness is only a short step away.

But what happens to this music as the years go by? Why do we let it fade away or bury it under tons of weary inane matters? Bind ourselves with chains of stress and sorrow and boredom that would hold us so fast that our bodies couldn’t move even if there was a tune playing in our minds? Why do we let the music in our heads go?

I’m sure all of us can offer a thousand or more reasons why we’ve become the way we are and stopped listening to the tunes in our heads. The reasons may be different for each one of us or maybe even similar; however, the point is that we let the music in our heads die. And, if we cannot let go of this material, physical world even for a minute and lose ourselves in a world of our own — is life as we are living it really worth it?