Music that INSPIRES

I belong to a forum called Inspire (Advanced Breast Cancer group) and a thread going on at the moment is 'Music to fight cancer by - a playlist for fun.  However I just came across this and wow, it kinda sums up how I feel at the moment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrPWFQdnYVc Mary J Blige 'The Living Proof'

I have already posted Helen Reddy 'I am Woman' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4xpDuf84A&feature=related.  As I am not at work for the summer, and I work in education the theme has to be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qga5eONXU_4
Music is something that can really take me places.  I was given an MP3 player for my 50th birthday a couple of years ago and I keep it is my backpack so I can listen to something when I am out walking.  Even more importantly I listen when I am having to wait around hospitals and during treatments.  It really helps to have something to listen to that can remind me of somewhere wonderful, or a guided meditation that can take me to places where there is calm and brightness as the medication is pumped into my veins.  Treatment is not something that any of us wants to have, but the more you resist it the less it will work for you.  I 'see' the Zoledronic Acid going to the areas where it is really needed, and where it is a bit like Zorro weilding a sword made of killer T cells and popping cancer cell bubbles.

We all have music that we love, and music for different moods.  I only like good music, but because I like it, it is good music.  Vaughan-Williams 'The Lark Ascending', Rachmaninov piano concertos 2 and 3, and so many other things that he composed.  On other occasions Jimi Hendrix's live version of Johnny B Goode can really hit the right note in tune with my mood.  I just wish I had some musical talent to go with this love of music, I wish I could sing because that must be a marvelous thing; to say nothing of being very cathartic. 

I went to the Three Choirs Festival a couple of years ago when it was held in Gloucester and hearing the music in the Cathedral was magical.  At only one concert did I sit in the nave with a view of the stage, the rest of the time I sat in the Quire and admired the architecture while the music floated around me.  The Three Choirs is on at the moment, and this year it is in Hereford, last year in Worcester, then back to Gloucester next year.  Some of Elgar and Vaughan-Williams music was written for the Festival and my great-aunt sang in the Gloucester Cathedral choir for many years, but sadly the musical talent didn't reach me.  I remember once, years ago, when I went to Gloucester to do some family history research I got there before the Archives opened so I went to the Cathedral for a while.  It was a hot summer morning although it was only about 8am and when I walked into the cool of the cathedral the organist began to practice Bach's Toccatta.  I am not usually a fan of organ music, but a great organ in a great church can be amazing as you can not only hear the music, but you can feel the music as the ground vibrates when it is at full throttle.  How some of my ancestors must love being buried in the cloisters and being able to listen to that sound...