We are visiting grandchildren. I stayed home with the nine-year-old and the two-year-old while everyone else went to baseball practice. Our job was to clean up the kitchen. As you can imagine, this is not a popular job and there were a lot of dirty dishes from the eight people who had just had dinner.
The first task was to empty the dishwasher. This is difficult for visitors. Plates, silverware, and glasses are pretty easy to put away but where does the odd plastic dish go? The nine-year-old was not enthusiastic about helping until I asked Alexa to play some music at top volume. I choose a song from the Disney movie Encanto. When you have a lot of grandkids and you go from house to house, you become an expert at what is popular with the age group.
The music energized all of us and now we were dancing around the kitchen putting things away and having a ball. There was one song we listened to that we had to stop and be respectful of the “sad” part.
Music is my way to God. I missed the communal singing during the pandemic. In my tradition, there are hymns that are used that work with the readings of the day. Often after I have preached a sermon, the congregation will sing a hymn and I realize that my struggles with what to preach that day could have been solved if I had just read the words to the hymns.
My favorite hymn is “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” Music changes everything..
Contemplative Knitting 
Oh Julie, this speaks directly to me!! Music moves me like nothing else. Thank you for sharing these thoughts.Mary
LikeLike
I agree
LikeLike