A cricket sang and set the sun

The inspiration for A cricket sang and set the sun is the idea that one small act of kindness can change everything. One smile, one kind word, one helping hand, one small gesture at the right moment, can be transformative. It can make you see your life, and even the world around you, in an entirely different way. Often, the person who changes everything doesn’t even realize they’ve done something special. In being kind, generous, and supportive, they’ve only done what they would always do.

And while the title is taken, with one small change, from the first line of a poem by Emily Dickinson, the piece is not based on the poem. When Dickinson wrote “The Cricket sang, And set the Sun,” she almost certainly didn’t mean that the cricket’s song caused the sun to set. Instead, she meant “The cricket sang. And the sun set." Two separate events, happening simultaneously at the end of the day. But I love the image of a cricket's song having the power to change day into night. Of something so very small affecting something so impossibly large. A beautiful metaphor for a seemingly small act of kindness changing someone else's entire world.

A recording of A cricket sang and set the sun is available on Firefish: The Music of Blake Tyson