Something changes and something stays the same

I've been helping some of my piano students with chord progressions lately, and trying to have them see that in the progressions which sound best to our ears, "something changes and something stays the same". For example, in a typical I-V-I cadence, the fifth tone of the scale is used in both chords. If a budding musician can find the note which stays the same, it will be easier for him/her to place the next chord.

Constancy and change...isn't this a symbol for so much in life?

This week, the Japanese cherry trees are abloom with pink blossoms and I remember past years with same flowers. In college days, those trees beckoned me to lean against them as I studied for exams in the bright April sun. In my early grown-up years those trees whispered to me "Find land! Make a garden! No more renting! It's time to nest and reclaim a sense of home!" Last year, the blossoms were just sadness for me; a mentor friend of mine was going through chemo treatments and all I could think of was how shortlived the trees' splendor would be and how love just leads to the pain of loss. Today, they are as exuberant as ever for me, and they just remind me to slow down a little in honor of A.E.Housman, and in honor of my own need for nature's nurture. The same cherry trees, different springs...

Certain places are markers for constancy and change, too. There is a gentle town close to my home, and its quaint main street leads to a waterfall with a mill and two small museums. When I first moved to New Jersey, I set out to explore my new state, and I decided to drive half an hour in each direction from my new apartment to find the limits of my new world. This town, Clinton, was the western half-hour mark from my first apartment. When I found it (on an expedition with a college friend), I was ecstatic to be living close to such beauty. However, at that time, most of my ventures led me eastward, and before long I forgot where the cute town was, and even what its name was. Time passed...and somehow or other I ended up moving close by! Now, I have spent so many happy afternoons and evenings with people I love in this town. Sometimes the visits are "catch-up" visits; sometimes they are events to celebrate a season or a birthday; sometimes, like last night, they are post-show calming times. The mill is always there; the waterfall always rolls; it is always beautiful.

Something changes. Something stays the same.