I’m wondering where the power is held? Is it in a blue duo tang filled with lyrics or is it held by a woman holding a beautiful blue guitar?
One Tuesday a month I get to go to music therapy. This is definitely my favourite day of the month. I start the morning picking up the girls, we head to Starbucks then we are off to the local Community Centre. Today was one of the best ever. Now I go to Music Therapy under the guise that I am helping a student I work with. It is presented as a gift and opportunity for her, but what is really happening is that it is a gift and opportunity for me. For people that may not know me, there are a few things I really love, outside my family of course. I love to talk, complain and write but what I really, really love is music. To me I need music to function. I need it to think and feel, to believe and love. I need it to be me.
This is why when I walk into our “music room” and spy the little blue duo tangs I know that this day is going to be great. I can feel the power that those books are radiating and I am anticipating the joy that they will bring. So as we begin the session our therapist starts to sing her welcome to us and as her voice fills the room I am again reminded that this session is for me. The power that she is exuding is beyond measure, there is not a soul that is not totally focused on her and the music she is making. Immediately all my worries, stresses and thoughts are gone and I am lost in her voice and her music. Then she passes out the blue books and we are all able to pick one song to sing. And here, here I can sing. Only she needs to be on key and I do not. Here I can sing off key and I can sing loud if I want to and nobody cares. Here I am the performer I’ve always wanted to be and here I can sing from my heart and love each and every minute of it.
And as we all eagerly flip through the pages trying to find our perfect song, we tall people are discussing how each song brings to life certain memories. Memories of being with grandparents or with family, or just being. One of those blue book songs can transport us again to another time and place. So I am scanning each page reading the lyrics and titles and I cannot decide which one I want to pick. One about a brown eyed girl, a piano man, drinking whiskey……..Then she begins to play again and I am lost. I cannot find my perfect song because everyone is singing, tall and short people, and we are happy. We are really, really happy. Are we going to win a Grammy? Absolutely not, well maybe our therapist is but her backup singers suck, but we are happy. And does it matter that we are singing Spiderman and theme songs from Toy Story and Cars? No. What matters is that every single tall and small person in that room is singing and we love it.
So we sing together and I can sing loud and pretend for a moment that I’m a star and I feel my soul lighten. Everything leaks out and all that is left is light and music. And I am happy. So this session that is meant to be a gift and opportunity for my small person is most definitely a gift and opportunity for me. And I do not mind selfishly accepting it.
So where is the power? In a blue book filled with lyrics or the woman with the blue guitar? I say 20% book and 70% lady and 10% me. But that 10% for me will change the rest of the day for me. That 10% will make today the “Best Day Ever.”