When I think back on my childhood summers, I can still feel the rhythms that shaped them. Long days outside, the sound of cicadas humming like a steady background beat, evenings around the campfire, crickets chirping in time,  and mornings that always seemed to begin just a little too early for my liking. There was a natural flow to those days — bursts of excitement, then long stretches of rest.

As an adult, I notice those same patterns repeating. Life seems to move in rhythms — busy seasons where every moment is full, and quieter times when life feels more spacious. Some weeks feel like a lively drumline, while others are more like a gentle lullaby. Both are needed to create the song of our lives. This summer, my little family has lived through all kinds of rhythms — fast, packed days full of camps and epic camping trips, playdates, outings, and slower stretches when the kids were off at cousin or auntie sleepovers. Music teaches us that both the busy beats and the quiet rests are needed to make a song beautiful… and life works the same way.

A song without rhythm is just sound without structure. It’s the balance of notes and rests, fast and slow, that makes music come alive. I’m learning that the same is true in my own life: I need to embrace the rests as much as the action, the slow as much as the fast. Thank you to my student Brigid and her family- for Christmas they gave me a necklace that was a quarter rest symbol-with a sweet note to remember to take rests in life.

This September, as we settle into new beginnings — back-to-school, new schedules, the slow shift toward fall — I’m reminding myself, and you, to honor life’s rhythms. To listen for the beat beneath it all, and to lean into both the fast and the slow.

Yours in Service,

Kathy Petersen
President and Founder, Opus Music Academy