Just when you least expect it

I am always amazed at the ability of music to exert its effect on me. On Easter Sunday, I was sitting in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church choirloft, as I have done for the past 12 years, tired after our second service, including two Hallelujah Choruses (Messiah and Christ on the Mount of Olives) x 2 and getting ready for the 7 hours of driving ahead of me. Trying to muster up my energy, in silence, I sat there listening to my friend Terence Flanagan playing the Widor Toccata (from Symphony No 5 in F, Op 42 No 1). Now I've heard him play this many times, including at my wedding and once before on this particular day. Yet of all a sudden, I felt my pulse race and my body start to shiver. I smiled and I was rejuvenated; ready to face the rest of the day.

It just does it to me sometimes.