There is an endless source of fantasy in the world - I find it in music.

I love listening to music at all hours and every moment I can; a day for me when I don't listen to music, is because I must be sick, or worse, dead inside. Apart from that, I am always listening to music that reminds me of happy times, or different stages in my life that even if they are associated with memories full of sadness, nostalgia, fear or uncertainty, each sound, lyrics, and artist that represents each element in a whole, has helped me process and assimilate everything that has happened to me, and is happening now.

Now, there is a quality of music so exquisite, beautiful and magical, that makes me very happy, and it is when I get that kind of music that makes me make memories. Those memories are not tied to specific moments in my life, they come more from the imagination, from the surprise of discovery, from the richness of finding a treasure that you weren't looking for. That for me is inspiring and is something I have not achieved in any other art expression (although I am not really looking to compare, as each art expression is unique and important in its own way).

Everything concrete, specific, and material of the day, fades away with the melody of beautiful tunes that empty me and make me forget, being in the present at the same time. This is what I felt when I saw Merry-Go-Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi for the movie Howl's Moving Castle, and who is also the artist behind other beautiful compositions. For me, the funny thing has been that the whole studio Ghibli was unknown to me as a child, and yet, now as an adult, with every composition that accompanies the studio's films, I feel as if I have heard them before, as if I have seen them before, as if my imagination really wasn't so wrong.

It is also its timelessness that I greatly enjoy, that regardless of age or our origins, when music does not lack beauty, we can all feel for a moment like carefree children, who are left to wonder at the small and the big in the world, and who live with the knowledge that while art has some fantasy in it, it is because there is already so much fantasy in the world, because it is not something we invent out of thin air, it is something we live with every day if we learn to look. Living with this heightened sense is a challenge, and I trust that we can all enjoy challenges.

I hope you take a deep breath, let yourself be soothed and enveloped for a few precious minutes with this and other beautiful pieces of music, and let yourself marvel at the extraordinary that resides in the mundane, inspired by the fine line between the real and the unreal that music pushes us to. Thank you for making it this far and reading me, I wish you a happy week!