Summertime… ah, the wonders of the season. I love to watch people enjoying the sunshine, working in their yards, relishing outdoor concerts. It brings to mind warm summer nights at Meadowbrook, sitting on the lawn, listening to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra playing beautiful music under the stars. I love how music can take us away into another world. Music can also be a transformative tool in our lives.

Dr. Jean Houston is one of my favorite people. She is a very charismatic speaker and often uses the power of music to get her point across. At one of her talks, she had the audience stand up and just move to the music from Hooked On Classics. The upbeat rhythm not only refreshed us, but brought out joyous giggles and many smiles as well. She spoke about how she had gone to visit a friend in a nursing home. This woman had advanced Alzheimer’s and was unable to recognize any of her family.

As Dr. Houston sat there silently with this woman, she began to hum and then sing tunes from her era, songs that would have been popular when her friend was younger. In a very short period of time, the woman began singing along with her. Dr. Houston had discovered a doorway that could provide a breakthrough in this particular malady. What a fabulous moment that was!

In a movie that came out a few years ago, Richard Dreyfuss played Glenn Holland, a music teacher who joyfully shared his contagious passion for music with his students. One day a young girl didn’t come to class. He asked her why and she said because she couldn’t play very well so she had left her clarinet there in the room and was quitting. He told her, “Playing music is supposed to be fun. It’s about heart… not about notes on a page.” Then he asked her what she thought her best asset was and she said her hair because her father said it looked like a sunset. He then told her to pick up the instrument, close her eyes and “play the sunset.”

When was the last time you played the sunset? Is there some music or an instrument sitting and gathering dust in a corner of the attic or basement? I believe we all have something inside that urges us to express ourselves. For some it is writing, while others take up a paintbrush and express through beautiful colors and fine strokes. And then there are some of us who yearn to express through our inner musician.

There is a growing movement, called Recreational Music Making, that promotes playing music just for fun and relaxation. It encourages picking up an instrument and letting whatever is inside flow out. There is even a magazine dedicated solely to this called Making Music.

Music can help us on our spiritual journey. Suggesting our deeper connection, Ralph Waldo Emerson made this observation, “Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are.” In finding your personal connection with music, you will uncover more of the fullness and richness of who you really are.

So, what are you waiting for? Dust off that instrument, sit yourself down and let your soul express its beauty. As our friend Wayne Dyer says, “Don’t die with your music still in you.”