Rachel Currera was 19 and budding pianist and composer with a bright future. Her future in music came to a standstill at that age after a car crash and head injury. For 10 years her capacity to compose music was dormant. Soon after beginning a meditation practice the music began to flow again. The lovely compositions emerged as her first album including the deeply moving I Found You, You Found Me.
The first time I heard the song I was moved to tears though I had no idea why. I had never known of Rachel and only encountered the song in passing. As I listened, I began to feel the message of the title. Through the music she seemed to be expressing the warm joy we feel when we embrace a long-lost dear friend or family member. In this case I sense it was her experience of knowing a vibrant and creative corner of herself once again, her ability to express herself in the language of music, after that decade of being away.
Her experience isn’t unusual in my experience. Over the past decade many graduates of my MBSR program and Yoga students offer such comments about getting to know or remember a lost dimension of their lives. Here are some student quotes about that:
“I have found a reservoir of strength that I thought I had lost..”
– Liz, MBSR graduate
“ I have rediscovered my capacity for joy and my ability to laugh.”
– teacher, MBSR graduate
“It would be worth going through chemo again to find this.”
– E.D., yoga student and cancer survivor
” I have a measure of control, humor, choice and joy back in my life.
My situation has not changed but I have.”
–Nurse, MBSR graduate
“I got myself back.”
-MBSR graduate