Some Notes You Hold is about surviving what life throws at us as we age. The so-called "golden years" are so named because of the high admission price-the tremendous losses, disappointments, illnesses, and failures we all experience if we live long enough. The first part of the book, called "Letting Go, " focuses on surviving deep grief. The middle section is a musical interlude, exploring the tremendous power of music to heal us mentally, physically, and spiritually and to reorder our thinking and our emotions. The last section, "Holding On, " explores the roads leading to survival: prayer and meditation, communion with the natural world, and writing. The price paid for those "golden years" leads to the prize: insight, joy, and a kind of peace we were incapable of when we were young.