It’s early autumn at the time of writing. A time when it may be good to be outside; a time when weather or circumstance may invite you inside.

A time for reflection, whether gathering in community or staying on one’s own.

As late summer shifts into autumn, it is a time for gatherings and festivals.

Celtic Colours International Festival is one such event. It takes place across nine days in early October every year all across Cape Breton Island in the north of the province of Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada.

Over the course of this series (seven years and counting at present), we have known we are in shifting times. We have known, too, that there are many ways music offers to navigate changes of all sorts.

A bit of rest, a moment for for reflection: in these shifting times, it can be a challenge to find time—even to remember to take time—for such things amidst shifting times in politics, personal life, world news, climate emergencies, and other ongoing events.

Music works well for this, though. Music can be a gateway and a companion to encourage and allow a bit of rest, a moment to step back, to reset one’s perspective.

Depending on circumstance and your taste in music, a lively tune can be just helpful with this as a reflective song.

Challenge, exploration, reflection, change, connection: each of these things is part of the shifting times we are living through, and that we consider in this ongoing series. There are other aspects of life that musicians address, too, of course.

Take a bit of time to let the creativity of these artists speak to you of, and during, shifting times.

In the northern hemisphere, spring is coming on; to the south of the globe, it is autumn. Both of those are seasons of change, and seasons of resilience. Seasons in which noticing and exploring changes in nature can help one’s perspective on changing and shifting times.

Music to go along with these ideas:

Connection happens in all sorts of ways.

There is connection to family.

There are friends, well known and loved ones, ones seen only in passing or known long ago, but yet connected still, and part of life.

There is connection to community built around all sorts of things, among them faith, sport, food, occupation...

News of natural disasters comes from Turkey and Syria and New Zealand. There’s the ongoing war in Ukraine and strife in Myanmar and Ethiopia. There are shootings, arguments, food insecurity, racism, political division around the globe, the ongoing effects of climate change, anger in public and private life...

All of which can make for a rather bleak scenario. Musicians live through these things, too. Often, there are threads of hope and resilience to be found in what they create.

It is winter in the northern hemisphere now, January.

I have always found this time of year time for reflection, for creativity, for seeking peace, and of course, for wondering and considering about what the new year will bring.