Embracing life is accepting all things as they are, enthusiastically and with open arms. It is a way of approaching life, an attitude.
If we will not embrace life as it is, then how will we embrace life? And if we do not embrace life, then what will we hold dear, if anything?
No one forces us to embrace life. We could tolerate it. We could even be angry and bitter about our circumstances, for all the good that does.
Life is an invitation that has walked through your door. You can embrace it or not, it is up to you.
Real
True Narratives
- Anne Enright, Making Babies: Stumbling Into Motherhood (W.W. Norton & Company, 2012): “Enright, with all her caustic wit, embraces . . . ‘the whole Megillah’”.
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Vintage Canada, 2006).: “Ishiguro has a way of pitting innocence against experience, while reminding us that we're capable of both.”
Visual Arts
- Zinaida Serebriakova, Peasant (1914)
- Ivan Aivazovsky, Chains of the Caucasus Mountains (1869)
- Boris Kostudiev, At the Sketches (At the Foothills)
Music: songs and other short pieces
- The Beatles, Let It Be
Film and Stage
- Departures, a magnificent and moving film about a man who becomes an artist at a ritual for families of the departed
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Brahms, Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (1883): Brahms, who never married may have been expressing his feelings about that in this symphony, which he described as “free but happy” – not free and happy. He had been in love the Clara Schuman, and may never have resolved those feelings. Top performances were conducted by Krauss in 1930, Weingartner in 1938, Furtwängler in 1949, Szell in 1951, Furtwängler in 1954, Klemperer in 1957, Reiner in 1957, Barbirolli in 1967, Boult in 1970, Sanderling in 1972, Abbado in 1989 and Alsop in 2005.
Malian multi-instrumentalist Baba Sissoko’s playing, particularly on his later albums, evokes joy and gratefulness:
- “Griot Jazz” (2021)
- “Mali Music Has No Borders” (2020)
- “Sissoko & Sissoko”, with kora artist Ballaké Sissoko (2019)
- “Amadran” (2019)
- “Mediterranean Blues” (2017)
Albums and live performances:
- Nana Mouskouri, Live at Herod Atticus, July 24, 1984; concert in Berlin, 1987
- Manu Dibango, Live ’91 album
- Sam Mangwana, Maria Tebbo album
- Robson Banda and The New Black Eagles, “Soweto”
- Franco et. le Tout Puissant OK Jazz, Mario album; La Vie des Hommes
- Hank Penny, Hillbilly Bebop: The King Anthology 1944-1950
- The Country Gentlemen, Country Songs, Old and New album
- The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East
- Miles Davis, “In Person at the Blackhawk, San Francisco” album
- Taylor Festival Choir, “So Hallow’d the Time”
Compositions:
- Aho, Chinese Songs (Kiinalaisia Iauluja) (1997): these songs convey sadness, even despair, until the final song breaks through with a revelation that we can choose another way.
- Dvořák, Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33, B163 (1875): Though written in a minor key, this concerto is a celebration of life.