Seasons are changing just now: winter to spring in the northern hemisphere, summer to autumn in the southern part of the globe.

Climate change brings unexpected happenings to these seasons of change. There are constants and unexpected changes in world order and in personal lives, too.  

Music for shifting times is what we decided to call this series back when we began with it. As times continue to shift in unexpected ways, there is music to illuminate, to inspire, and to walk alongside us through these times.

Changing and shifting times, indeed.

As we often remind you on this series, community and connection can be sources of strength in such times.

Music can be a reminder of community and connection. It can at times offer a gateway into ideas about these things, too, or a reminder of connection and shared ideas and values even across distance and time.

Winter.

Holiday season.

Grey skies, maybe snow or rain.

A lot to do as the year draws to a close.

Maybe you find this part of the year too busy, too cold, or too isolating.

Perhaps, on the other hand, you greet this time of year with anticipation and joy.

Maybe there is time and place for a bit of all these things.

Autumn into winter, changes in the angles of sunlight, continuing political and social changes of all sorts, the ongoing changes and challenges we each face in our personal lives: that’s just a bit of the way things continue to shift.

Autumn in to winter: a season of change, a season of reflection, a season of preparation.

That reflection might include  ways to focus and refocus on what matters, what’s important, what is of value as the next challenges and opportunities present themselves.

In shifting times, it can be helpful to think about community.

Communities can exist in person and at distance, online and face to face. They may be made up of those who are family near and far, work colleagues near and far, people you see in the course of everyday events such as a trip to grocers, a stop at the library, a regular visit to a favorite cafe.

This music could offer you ideas to spark reflection on the ways community works through these shifting times.

Shifting times, indeed.

In the midst of large-picture changes and day to day life events, music can be a way to reflect and to learn, or a method for speaking out in protest.

In these changing times, music can also work to inspire, to connect, to remind of hope.

Through times which continue to shift, there are songs and tunes which suggest connection, which remind of courage and of kindness and trust, even through dark times.

A hand reaching out, a touch on the shoulder, a reminder of connection: there are many ways music can bring these things.

When Ken Burns completed his film about jazz, he said, “I have made a film about jazz that tries to look through jazz to see what it tells us about who we are as a people.” And in his film Country Music, he quotes Merle Haggard saying that country music is “about those things we believe in, but can’t see.…” In these observations, Ken Burns and Merle Haggard capture music’s special impact and role as it touches and enriches all of our lives.