A moment of calm

All too seldom do we take the time to pause, to free ourselves briefly from the pressures of modern life and quietly meditate. Well may we ask, as did the the one-legged Northamptonshire cricketer W.H. Davies:
What is this life, if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

Or, as the Florentine poet Luciano Sparafucile put it: Durante le fermate nelle stazione è vietato servirsi della ritirata.

It's not easy, of course; we have lost the ability to relax, to contemplate, to enjoy silence and inaction. But music can always help us: a simple melody like this, soothing yet somehow inspiring, has the power to transport us to a place where the Weltanschauung is one of infinite tranquillity.