I strongly encourage everyone to live a life full of music. Be it any age, in any place, music is accessible to all. It transcends class barriers and preconceived notions. It can transport you to anytime and anyplace. It can bring up episodes of nostalgia or help process big emotions and feelings. Through it, we can come together and better understand each other. Through it we can use our voice to lift us higher. It can soothe a fussy baby or calm a troubled soul.

How does one live a life full of music? The wonderful thing about music is there are so many ways to embrace it. It could be as simple as stopping and listening to the sounds around you. For instance as I write this I can hear the sounds of my feet crunching on the newly graded dirt road. I can hear the scuffing of my companions’ footsteps on that same road. I hear a plane off in the distance overhead. I hear a Symphony of birds calling to each other from the trees that surround me. I can hear the bumblebees buzzing as they flit from flower to flower. And lastly I hear the dry leaves being rustled by small woodland creatures eager to greet the spring sunlight. There is music all around us all the time if we only make ourselves aware of it.

Then there is the act of producing music. This could be as simple as tapping your fingers on a tabletop or a dashboard. It could be humming a tune while you peruse the grocery store. It could be randomly breaking into song because somebody has made a passing comment in a conversation and you feel that without belting this tune you may die a little on the inside. (Personally this is one of my favorite ways of folding music into my day-to-day life.)

Music can also be a fantastic tool for cultivating a seasonal mood. In my family we have certain songs that we sing at certain times of the year then help ground ourselves and our children to know where we are in Time and space. With the additional Boone of also hoping to create a sense of reverence around the natural unfoldings of the calendar. If this is something you are interested in just Google seasonal song books for some inspiration.

Your musical inclinations may take you so far is to pick up an instrument or join a choir. If this speaks to you then I applaud your efforts. I am a huge fan of mediocrely playing the guitar or any instrument for that matter and personally believe that when many voices are connected as one we have the opportunity to connect to the heavens. I also strongly feel that the human voice needs to have a range of vocal ability and that by freely belting out a tune you are releasing some of the energy that may otherwise be turned towards yelling in a time of frustration.

And then there is the miraculous and magnificent act of playing music together in a band. Now this is a very broad category in my opinion. It could be a well-structured music-making machine that performs for audiences, or it could just be a bunch of discard musical items procured by a family that then allows the opportunity for children and adults to make loud noises together.

And thank goodness there’s always the option of playing some pre-recorded music or even in the current state of times live streaming some music right into your home. We are very prone to dance parties in our house. Or scream-singing along with the Lion King soundtrack. I would encourage you though to explore all musical genres. Given the fact that we have toddlers we do listen to Raffi in our home, however, we also listen to music composed over the past few centuries.

Hopefully you are in someway already engaging in at least one of these venues of musical inclination. My call to you in this time is to try out something new. Perhaps it’s just learning a new song if you are already active in the world of music. Perhaps it’s picking up an instrument for the first time. Perhaps it’s engaging your whole family in creating some music together. But whatever you do fill your life with music. Because a life full of music is a life full of joy.