Of course there were pianos along the way.\u00a0 At times I felt a strong need to play and would seek them out, sometimes delaying my departure from a village if I found one.<\/p>\n
I learnt a further lesson about manifestation during these weeks.\u00a0 It is crucial that one is as precise as possible in articulating the wish\/intention.<\/p>\n
I had said to myself\u00a0 \u2018I want to find a piano\u2019 and there were three responses to my wish.<\/p>\n
On the first occasion, stepping into a village hall, I saw the piano across at the side.\u00a0 Delighted, I approached it and opened the lid.\u00a0 Empty!\u00a0 Devoid of its innards.\u00a0 No mechanism.\u00a0 No keys.\u00a0 No strings.\u00a0 It had been gutted.\u00a0 Simply a wooden shell.<\/p>\n
A day or two later, arriving at the gite<\/em> where I had arranged to stay for the night, I found a piano in the dining room.\u00a0 But on inspection, although it had most of its yellowed keys \u2013 it was silent.\u00a0 Not a single sound emanated from under my fingers.<\/p>\n What to say !\u00a0 But I still hadn\u2019t got the message.\u00a0 I had asked for a piano\u2026 and two pianos had in fact appeared but the third example took the cake.<\/p>\n It was in a bistro, a quirky little place with plenty of clutter and the owners\u2019 souvenirs placed everywhere.<\/p>\n There was indeed a piano,\u00a0 but it hung from the ceiling<\/p>\n upside down.<\/p>\n Its keyboard out of reach !<\/p>\n I finally got it.\u00a0 So, the intention was rephrased.<\/p>\n \u2018I want to find a piano that I can play\u2019.<\/p>\n I found a beautiful concert grand piano in the Cathedral at Moissac.<\/p>\n I spent some reflective time in the immense cathedral, light filtering through its many windows.\u00a0 A beautiful luminous space with a lovely energy.\u00a0 Very comfortable sitting on one of the worn benches, watching a white-robed Franciscan monk readying things for the service to be held later for the pelerins <\/em>who would be moving on the next morning.\u00a0 I had decided I would stay on.<\/p>\n I approached the monk with his kindly face and voiced my request to play the beautiful piano.\u00a0 Would it be possible?\u00a0 I told him I was from South Africa.\u00a0 He was gentle and seemed wise.\u00a0 He nodded and said he would have the key later.<\/p>\n Later turned out to be quite a bit later when the cathedral was filled with pilgrims \u2013 all waiting expectantly for the blessing on the next stage of their journeys.\u00a0 I waited too, hoping for the key to the piano, for later.<\/p>\n We were almost at the end of the service just prior to the final blessing when his words reached me.\u00a0 \u2018Marilyn, from South Africa, will allow music to bless your path\u2019.\u00a0 Something like that.<\/p>\n I walked up to the longest piano I have ever encountered, and my fingers hovered over the perfect keys.\u00a0 The first notes of Au Revoir<\/em> sounded their beautiful harmonics, circling up into that magnificent resonant chamber.\u00a0 It was exquisite as I felt the vibrations from the piano through my fingers into my whole body.<\/p>\n As the final note hung in the air around us, a deep peace settled in the cathedral, in me and I sensed in the assembled pilgrims, each dealing with the issues which had got them to step out on this path in the first place.\u00a0 This Franciscan monk had trusted that the music would be appropriate for the ceremony.\u00a0 I could have hugged him.<\/p>\n Before I left Moissac the following morning, I went to the cathedral and to my delight found that the piano was still unlocked.\u00a0 I took the opportunity to play, oblivious of the early morning visitors, and the music flowed and echoed and filled the huge stone sanctuary.<\/p>\n Then after a good breakfast cafe et croissants<\/em> I left Moissac feeling rested and deeply nourished on all levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A very good lesson in manifestation as I searched for pianos to play along the way. Finally a magnificent encounter in the Moissac cathedral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":566,"template":"","categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565","episode_posts","type-episode_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-part-4-aftermath-and-afterlife"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/episode_posts\/565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/episode_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/episode_posts"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}