15/10/2024
I wrote this a year ago, but something in the past few days reminded me of it 🙏🏻
The cellist of Sarajevo
I was thinking recently about frequency. How the universe responds to our frequency and not to our needs or desires. How by changing our mindset we can change our life. Almost the same way we tune into the music we like, we need to tune into the energy we want to manifest.
As a musician and a person, I am a big believer of this being true. Of course there is always the argument about what happens when we find ourselves in times of adversity, like in a war zone? Or when we face personal challenges with our health, relationships or work, how much change can we bring by keeping our vibrations high? Even more poignantly , are we to blame for having the wrong mindset, that we have found ourselves in those circumstances?
I don’t think these are the right questions to ask. It is in difficult times that we need to see ourselves and others with compassion and prioritise healing instead of being able to rationalise and take action. Sometimes, all we can do is just go back to the simplest pleasures and find connection with what makes us human. There is great responsibility in that!
Pondering this, I remembered the ‘Cellist of Sarajevo’, as a symbol of musical frequency in a time of war. Vedran Smailovic, is a musician from Bosnia and Herzegovina, that in 1992, during the siege of Sarajevo, spent 22 days playing Adagio for Strings by Albinoni, at the ruins of a church in the middle of the destroyed city centre. 22 people had been killed by a mortar shell in the same place waiting in line for bread a few days earlier. Smailovic, risked his life for 22 days, playing this song over and over. One day for each life lost. What a currency to pay back for life! Did his actions have anything to do with making the war stop? Could he influence or change the place he had found himself in? No, but nevertheless something in him believed that his act was important. That playing music was the only way to heal his wounded community, the only means he had to send his message to the world, to change the frequency around himself and the people of his city.
And it was such his faith in this act that he went out, everyday, with the same conviction, believing that this was something worth doing. He did not end the war, but he became the voice of his community. His music lifted the spirit of others and his story, to this day, is an example of how to live your life with courage and purpose.
So being at the right frequency, for me, is about trusting life. About listening to the melody of your heart, connecting with your song and sharing it with others that might be in need of it. When we live our lives in authenticity and in service, then we vibrate at the right frequency. And that’s how we can change the world for ourselves and others ❤️
