passing notes

I was at a friend's birthday party last night and chatted briefly with Matt Slocum. While we were talking I remembered that he wrote one of my most favorite song lyrics ever:

"Tension is to be loved when it is like a passing note to a beautiful, beautiful chord."

It was on a Sixpence album a while back but it comes to mind at least a few times a year. I wish I had written it but I am not sure I could have put words to that thought as eloquently as he did. I'm not really one for tension, for dissonance. Dissonance is defined as "a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion." I tend to retreat when I sense that conflict is near. In my life tension has often led to brokeness instead of rest. The dissonance of this past year has been anything but loved; I have hated almost every single moment of it. But Slocum's words remind me that the beauty of a chord is fully appreciated when one has experienced the dissonance of its unrest. I find that I am restless, living in the midst of a tension that longs for relief. I think this is what it feels like to hope--to live in a way that anticipates something beautiful, to believe that one day the tight knot will loosen its grip.
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