Joy Zimmerman Music

“Life shrinks or expands proportional to one’s courage.“  ~Anais Nin 

I once heard that our most vivid childhood memories involve loss. The deepest mark is often left by discomfort or pain. 

Revisiting my own childhood brought back two such scenarios…

During the long winter did you keep envisioning this spring day? The weather would warm, the vaccine would spread, and you would begin to breathe more deeply. You'd gather safely with a few treasured people and even hug after being…

Applause still resounds from balconies at shift change…signs proclaim gratitude in yards across the country…firsthand accounts appear in newspapers…yet we can’t thank health care workers enough. 

I was inspired to write We’ll Hold the Light from my front row seat…

How amazing is it that the 100th anniversary of the women’s right to vote falls during an election year? What a great reminder to exercise and protect this right! 

To honor this Centennial, Linda and I cooked up a Facebook…

How have these times changed you? Even as I ask, I doubt any of us can fully answer. I suspect we’ll be unravelling the impact of this pandemic for decades. 

Living with an invisible, unprecedented threat has brought with new…

"This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can...reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.' "   ~Leonard Cohen 

Hallelujah (n.) – an…

When Linda cooked up the idea of recording a live CD, my insides clenched. I proceeded to be nervous for the next four months. 

You see, I’m a card-carrying perfectionist. I love performing and sharing music live, but “what happens…

Five-year-old me is rocking back and forth on her heels. All dressed up, I am waiting to meet Santa Claus for the first time. The line for the elevator at this department store in downtown St. Louis is long. My…

My dream was crystal clear. A woman was falling from a tall skyscraper in slow motion right in front of me. I watched helplessly from across the street. Unable to I avert my eyes, I was horrified and also confused—why…

Consider the bear... 

* Bears hibernate up to 7½ months without eating, drinking, urinating or defecating. They have an amazing self-contained system that enables them to recycle their own water and retain bone strength and muscle mass. 
* During hibernation…

My word of intention for this new year is “gutsy.” I originally toyed with “fearless” but decided that a certain amount of fear will be my companion if I’m living right.  Choosing gutsiness, I’m declaring “Hats Off to 2020!” 

“Do…

“The music is not in the notes, but the silence in between.” ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

I distinctly remember the moment the Kindermusik teacher told us moms and little ones that the rests are just as important as the notes…