For some reason today I found the songs from the “Sound of Music” playing in my head and I have a habit of singing aloud the songs in my head so I suppose they were playing in my house too. I have been told that when my daughter begins to fuss I instantly start to hum without even thinking about it or knowing that I am doing it. I have been singing to both daughters since before they were even born and most of the time a song from me has magical powers over them and they calm down almost instantly and eventually fall asleep. As I walked in loops outside in the cool air singing “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss,” “Do Re Mi,” and a litany of other songs trying to coax my teething one year old into a deep slumber I couldn’t help but think of the power of music to move us. The sound of music can lure us towards it, it can captivate us, motivate us, cause us to swoon, be an act of prayer, express emotions deeper than any words, and yes…put us to sleep. I remember humming to my first daughter one time and a friend was in the room trying to do homework and he fell asleep before she did. Maybe some of that is my voice, but I think most of it is the music itself and the magic of the melody which transfixes us. When I was playing sports we would listen to things like “Eye of the Tiger,” and the bagpipes from the movie “Braveheart” as they went into battle to pump us up before games and meets. In worship the repetitive resonance of chant is used in a number of religions to help us enter into a meditative state of contemplation and focus. I could write a whole other blog on the words (and I probably will), but even without them there really is something about “The Sound of Music.” Hmm hmm hmhmhm hmhm hmm hmm hmm hmm