🎵🎵These are a Few of My Favorite Things 🎵🎵

SOLSC21, Day 28

Today was just one of those days. Mom’s anxiety attacks are back, dad doesn’t know what to do to ease her struggle with it, my siblings and I are all countries and continents away from them and worry about them being stressed over not seeing us for almost two years. It was also a day when we have a yearly ritual of remembering and praying for the dead, so we remembered all our loved ones, especially those we’ve lost this past year to Covid and to other causes. Just one of those days where a lot of reasons get together and  conspire to keep you feeling vaguely low. 

But I also have one more ritual. This one always manages to lift my spirits in the most amazing way. The song “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens….These are a few of my favorite things” starts with my feet tapping to the lyrical beat. Then, I start to hum along. Soon, I’m singing as I work, even waltzing or doing my own version of a ballet! The gloom is there, but this song never fails to lift the spirits. The words and the imagery, even without the music, are enough to evoke positive emotions. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings…. Just envisioning all of this makes my heart feel full! “Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings….. Silver white winters that melt into springs….” I’m smiling even as I’m typing the words. It’s funny how my mood improves in tandem with the music, as the crescendo rises, so do I feel lighter and lighter!

There are also so many memories associated with the movie. Even though over half a century old, the movie still remains a family favorite. It was one of the few movies we were allowed to watch as kids, and the few that we were allowed to watch, we’d keep repeating them over and over. And so, The Sound of Music came to be our all-time favorite. As kids, we found the later, more sombre half “boring” and never fully understood it either. We would stop the movie when Julie Andrews turned more solemn and the fun stopped. We loved performing parts of the movie and its songs for the elders of the family! Our first puppet shows were also inspired from “The Lonely Goatherd.”

So there, my self-made ritual never fails to evoke cheer. It never fails to drive away some of the negativity I might be feeling. It never fails to lift the spirit.