Summertime Publishing
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Our Authors
    • Publish with Us
    • Contact Us
    • Our Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Services and Fees
    • Publishing Programmes
    • Selected Services
  • Our Bookshelf
    • Summertime Direct
    • Anthology
    • Careers and Business
    • Children's Books
    • Country Guides
    • Expat Life
    • The FIGT Collection
    • Health and Wellbeing
    • Third Culture Kids
    • Writing
    • Springtime Shop
  • For Writers
    • LDF Award
    • Jo Parfitt, Mentor
    • author2author
    • Paddy Hartnett, Proofreader
    • Writing Retreats
    • Free Resources for Writers
    • From Pipedream to Proposal
    • e-Learning
  • Blog

Summertime
​News

The art of doing one thing at a time

1/11/2013

Comments

 
Last weekend we went to an afternoon concert given by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. They were playing Mahler’s 5th and a piano concerto by Haydn. I was vaguely familiar with the Mahler though I knew and recognised only the adagietto. I hadn’t a clue about the Haydn but we went because it was over the road from our temporary apartment and because we’d move out in less than a week and because we could. It was only ten quid each too, so a real bargain.

Unsure of how I’d cope with such a long concert of unfamiliar music I took along my notebook and pen.

During the first movement I found myself compelled to write down what the music made me see. I saw an army of soldiers on horseback, muskets loaded, led by a drummer, charging into battle. When the movement reached a close, I immediately regretted what I had done. By taking notes I had not really experienced the music. I had neither listened properly, nor taken the time to study the musicians, how their chests, bodies, limbs and bows moved with the music.

So, for the next movement I decided to close my eyes. Ouch! That’s a dramatic movement too and I found it way too loud. So, I did an experiment. I wondered if by opening my eyes I’d lower the impact of the sound. It worked! But the moment I started watching the orchestra and listening, I lost the experience, the essence of simply listening to the music. I found a solution, and stared with soft focus eyes at my skirt and thus could really hear the music.

By the adagietto I was ready to try and listen with eyes closed again. I knew it would not deafen me and, as the bit I knew, I’d really enjoy it. Oh boy, did I enjoy it, feeling the vibrations and noticing how they moved in my body. It was sublime, reaching those places in my heart that only fine music, beautifully played, can reach. Ian thought I’d fallen asleep! This was by far the most delicious way to enjoy an adagio.

Of course, as soon as the concert was over I opened my notebook to record my findings. Can’t help myself, you see.

I’d realised that our senses are generally divided up between those in use and that indeed, if I closed my eyes, my hearing became more acute. I was like a gleeful child with my discovery.

​The next day, I saw I’d missed Eva László-Herbert’s interview on Lost in Transition, led by Dr Paulette Bethel. Eva is a friend of mine and a wordsmith to the core. I listened to the repeat show that was still online and was blown away with her words and at times was moved to tears by her erudition and eloquence. I reached for a pen to write down some of her wisdom and immediately lost the gist of the next sentence. Her best three words were these: ‘paper is patient’. Genius.

Eva is a simultaneous interpreter and I have no clue how she can listen to what is being said while expressing what was just said in another language, but I digress. I may be a woman and supposedly able to multitask but I simply can’t listen and write at the same time. Nor can I listen and read as I went on to discover.

After 45 minutes of Eva’s one-hour talk I noticed an App button was jumping up and down from the dock on my computer. I felt compelled to take a look – and immediately lost the thread of her conversation.

When I consider how many evenings I allow myself to pick up any Facebook messages or Whatsapps while I am watching a film, or how youngsters are constantly messaging their friends when at the dinner table, I realise there is no way we can be engaged in reality while we are engaged in something else.

Which is why I hereby vow not to take a notebook with me when I do something that really inspires me, like go for a walk in nature or listen to an author being interviewed. I know for sure, now, that by writing and listening or writing and experiencing at the same time I will lessen the experience of being in the moment and that my writing will suffer as a result.

I am a habitual note taker, so I am not quite sure how I will cope and if I will remember the important bits later. But somehow, I think that anything I do remember later, like the best line from a play or a great piece one of my students wrote, was worth remembering. So then, I will write it down.

I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to stop writing and stop using social media for a moment and really start to experience the inspiration that comes your way.
Comments
    Picture
    All the latest news from the team at Summertime Publishing
    Subscribe

    Archives

    February 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    July 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    September 2008
    May 2008

Summertime Publishing

Website by author2author | © Summertime Publishing 2023 All Rights Reserved
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Our Authors
    • Publish with Us
    • Contact Us
    • Our Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Services and Fees
    • Publishing Programmes
    • Selected Services
  • Our Bookshelf
    • Summertime Direct
    • Anthology
    • Careers and Business
    • Children's Books
    • Country Guides
    • Expat Life
    • The FIGT Collection
    • Health and Wellbeing
    • Third Culture Kids
    • Writing
    • Springtime Shop
  • For Writers
    • LDF Award
    • Jo Parfitt, Mentor
    • author2author
    • Paddy Hartnett, Proofreader
    • Writing Retreats
    • Free Resources for Writers
    • From Pipedream to Proposal
    • e-Learning
  • Blog