The “Swan of Tuonela” by Sibelius.
     One of the most deeply and moving pieces I have ever heard –
     It has the definite sadness and melancholy that goes with absolute beauty – It is hard to define, but as I listen to it, it stirs me in a way no music has ever done – It has the wild sad beauty of nature in it – I have felt the same way in the woods, especially in the spring, kneeling before a clump of new hepaticas; or when watching a spiral of dry leaves, caught up by a miniature whirlwind, eddy out of sight down some dark pine hollow, whence comes a soft roar of distant cataracts – It comes over me that all beauty is ephemeral – no matter how mush we would wish to imprison it, and keep it forever alive, this divine moment will pass – it always passes, and leaves behind the banality of life – We have no assurance that we will ever experience it again –
     As we approach the summer solstice our brief taste of tropical weather begins – heavy moist windless heat saturates the earth – the rank meadows reek with hot buttercups –
     I sit with the children in the shade of a small tree surrounded by wide fields – not a cloud in the sky, the early afternoon sum pours down infinite light and heat –
     The beans coming up in the garden – almost can we see their movement –
     A thunderish day - storms move slowly along the southern sky – thunder looms distantly all the time