Music used to be a HUGE part of my life, at least on the listening end. All encompassing, enveloping, everywhere.  Massive stereo system, an entire wall of electronics and a library of vinyl.

Fast-forward 40 years or so and the vinyl and high-end audio components have been replaced with an iPad, a Bose SoundDock and a Sonos Play5 system for wireless streaming from Pandora or my iPad. (The Sonos was a gift rather than an investment of my own.) My CDs are either scratched from the car and tossed, or gathering dust somewhere.

I usually only listen to music when I'm cooking or when friends are over for dinner. Even then, the volume is low and I'm quick with the clicker trigger to advance.

The radio choice in the car is OFF or NPR, except on long trips when audiobooks help pass the time. But a new vehicle with Bluetooth and satellite radio do open new possibilities for road trips.

Part of the reason for this transition, I'm sure, is sensory/information overload.  I need quiet to work, quiet to concentrate, quiet to relax, quiet to think.

'Quiet' is relative, because hearing protector-muffled mower, tractor and chainsaw hum qualifies as 'quiet' (or at least white noise) for the purposes of relaxation and thinking.  I do my best thinking on a mower, in the shower, on long trips in the car or when asleep. Great problems have been solved and issues resolved by allowing myself the indulgence of quiet... and learning when to step away to let quiet do its thing.

I'm sure another part of the reason music has been pushed into the shadows is my simply becoming an old fart. (You wanna know how old I am?  The first concert I ever went to was the Beatles, 1965, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, just after their Help! album came out. That's serious old.)

One thing that constantly reminds me how important music was in my life, back in the day, is how I can now hear an "oldies" song (read that as '60s/'70s/early '80s classic rock, not '50s doo-wop as defined the term in my 'yoot') and more often than not be able to pinpoint the year it was popular and who the artist was... as gauged by how embedded it was in the events of my life at the time.  Of course this triggers all kinds of other associated memories... true sensory flashbacks.

I made multiple attempts at musicianship in my early years before declaring myself profoundly musically challenged.  WC Fields famously said, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it."

It took me about 20 years to realize it, but (like struggling for about ten years with playing golf) I was much more at peace with it after putting it aside. Like the 'Serenity Prayer', thankfully I had "the wisdom to know the difference".