Essay: Music to My Ears Whereever I Am

Others have brought to their stressful life situations to my attention recently. Since I’m going through my own transitional period, I feel more sensitive than usual to other people’s emotional needs, especially the need for comfort. I recommend listening to music in whatever way possible.

At the moment I’m limited to 10 CDs while the others (another 588 CDs) are safely stored at a friend’s house along with my guitar. But I keep thinking of the desert island scenario and what CDs I would take along with me knowing full-well that the island would not provide electricity for me to play these CDs and the battery on my computer only lasts 2-hours. Then there are other scenarios that could play out such as complete blackouts of electricity in areas where disasters have struck. Expect the unexpected is my motto these days, but what about adding music preparedness to the kit?

Obviously there are situations where we won’t have access to our CDs, but we might still have access to musical instruments and musicians. We might still have access to sound healing in the form of natural sounds such as birds, bees, hummingbirds, water moving over stones or free falling down a side of a cliff. We might still have the sounds of the ocean. I say “might,” because I have no idea what awaits us during these transitional times. But we can sing can’t we?

So start putting together your music tool kit for times ahead. Gather a repertoire of songs you love to sing and share with others. Gather together musical instruments and learn to play them if you don’t know already. Add some sound healing tools such as singing bowls and tuning forks, drums, flutes, and other tools you can use to heal yourself and others when the need arises.

I came up with this idea when I was walking through another neighborhood on my way to another potential rental. I heard a violin coming from a house on a corner and it uplifted me. I have walked by homes hearing piano resonating outward to the street, and all of this feels healing to me. I have sat by creeks and listened to birds sing and none of these experiences costs me.

Get together with friends for musical purposes. People still do this and it builds community with people you’ll want to know when life takes the unexpected route. Music can also play a role with new agriculture and permaculture, and mostly to heal the damage that we have done to the planet. Music heals. We already know this fact from personal and scientific research (I include metaphysical research with science). But now it’s time to put this theory to the test.