Remaining positive during a rough time can be challenging. With the help of a particular film soundtrack, The Horse Whisperer, I was able to listen to my heart and see a moment of beauty in the chaos.
I’ll never forget that moment. I was living in Glendale, California and working at The Bold and The Beautiful in Los Angeles. When I left Glendale that morning for my commute to work, everything looked clear in the sky and the sun was just coming up as I was leaving. Right before I left, I looked down to my endless pile of CD’s on the floor and took the top one. Underneath that one was “The Horse Whisperer” soundtrack (The Horse Whisperer is my all-time favorite movies). I looked at it for a second and then something prompted me to take it with me.
I got in my car and started to head to work. I put the CD in that I had originally wanted to listen to and listened for a few minutes. Something wasn’t right. I took it out and put in The Horse Whisperer soundtrack. I like the opening song but it is not the first song on the album and I had forgotten where they had put that song on the soundtrack. Therefore, I was listening and scrolling through a few songs.
I got over the hill of the valley and into Hollywood. Up ahead it looked like there was a really dense fog. I remember thinking, “Wow, it was perfectly clear in Glendale.” I couldn’t believe there was fog up ahead. It was just like I was on the east coast again. Right as I started to drive into where the fog began, the song I love so much from the soundtrack came on and all of a sudden, my world started to change.
As my car traveled deeper and deeper into the fog, this calming feeling came to my heart. I took a few deep breaths and the more and more I drove; the more I was seeing things differently. Not only emotionally but also literally seeing things differently. The fog was so thick that I could only see about a block ahead. It was the kind of white fog that you would see in an airplane when you are in the clouds.
The music (piano and violins and the most beautifully composed score) played as soft little patches floated past my window. Every little branch, every little flower, every palm tree whose palms were waving in the cold morning breeze, seemed to stand out. I even noticed that there were little light rings around the stoplights because the fog was hovering over them. It was as if things were in slow motion.
As I got to work that day, I knew a greater force was telling me to see the beauty in life again. I felt enlightened, enriched and so glad that I witnessed and reflected on that moment of beauty. I love the fact that something so simple made me feel that way. As Henry David Thoreau says, “Simplify, simplify.”
Clearly, it was time for me to start to heal from my heartache. We do have powers above that are speaking to us and guiding us. We just need to open our hearts and minds and… LISTEN.