Finding connection, celebrating difference, taking joy in the small things on the way to those discoveries: music can be a gateway to all those things.

Music for shifting times is what we decided to name this series, back several years ago. Circumstances continue to shift, in political situations, in nature, in personal lives, in what happens day to day. In the music, there are several sorts of change, and several ways musicians have thought about and created ideas around them.

The saying that walking on uneven ground is good for improving balance strikes me as a metaphor for parts of the shifting times we are in at present. Music to help you think about that here, from rough seas to calmer waters, from quiet walks to a  tale holding wisdom from older times.

It is a time of year when thoughts turn to Ireland. It is the time of Saint Patrick's Day. The whole of this time of year, from February through May, is known as Patrick season, for that reason. At the time of Saint Patrick in earlier years in this series, I reflected that the story of Ireland, its diaspora, and its people, is one of making it through hardship and change, and finding ways to do that while keeping music in the heart, and sharing that music.

Autumn: a season turning leaves, of changes in landscape, of conversation, of reflection, of renewal. A season of preparation for holiday celebrations, and for thinking about what oncoming winter may hold. 

Music for shifting times: that's the title we came up with for this series of stories which I've been writing since the summer of 2016. Wherever you find yourself, things do seem to be in continual shift and at times and at an accelerating pace. Finding one's way through that sort of circumstance is an aspect musicians have often thought about.

Here are several musical ideas for you to consider, some practical, some mystical, all thought provoking.

A conversation with a friend, a passing exchange with a stranger, a favorite show, an article in a magazine or a headline in a newspaper, a window display, a note in a journal, a sketch on a napkin, a photograph, a book, a song: these are all stories, all ways in which we organize, create, and remember our days, and our lives.

How we tell these stories, to ourselves and to each other, shapes and shares perspectives on the world. In shifting times, especially, it is important to think about such perspectives and ways we share and shape them.

Perhaps you have made journeys and travels in landscape which you planned and looked forward to. Perhaps there have been other travels which you've made not so willingly. At times, it may feel as though things are moving even when, geographically, that is not so for you. There are, too, events which spark changes and journeys in imagination, thought, and questions. All this is part of the reason we chose to call this series music for shifting times.