This morning was a nightmare. Rune wanted to borrow my car because his truck is hooked up to his racing trailer (no, he doesn’t race trailers,) and he didn’t want to unhook it only to come back and hook it up again to go to the track today. So I borrowed Lukas’s car to pick up Kristina’s dog, Gidget, for her daily playdate with Bella. The traffic was stop and go. What usually takes 15 minutes took an hour. I got to Kristina’s house only to realize that the keys to her gate and front door are in my car. The worst part was coming home to find Bella waiting expectantly at the door, hopes dashed to see me empty handed. Now she’s moping. Okay, so I guess that doesn’t qualify as a nightmare, but…

Now for the post:

Me: Hi Jamie. Is Erik there with you?

Erik: Hi Mommy.

He used to call me “Mommy” in a high-pitched voice just to be silly.

Me: I love you.

Jamie: He loves you, too.

Me: I know. I’m going to ask some interesting questions. I want to know the spiritual side of music. You used to love music. I guess you still do, jamming on your guitars.

(Long pause)

Jamie: He is so far ahead of me. Yeah, I’m trying to get him to back paddle. Come back.

Me: Reel him in!

Jamie (smiling): I know! He’s very excited that you’re talking about music.

Erik: There are many different facets supporting why music is so energetically healing—not just the sound. The sound in and of itself has a vibration that can heal and balance, but the way that harmonies can be perceived and sometimes—

Jamie: Okay. Sorry. He doesn’t want me to use the word, “sometimes.”

Erik (very slowly): The way harmony is heard in the body, it does balance—

Jamie: Don’t talk like that, Erik!

Me: Erik, it’s too early in the morning for you to be treating her this way. Save it for later.

Jamie (mimicking Erik talking as if to a slow or deaf person): He’s talking like this so the blond will understand.

Me (laughing): Erik! You were really blond when you were a kid so I would not go there.

Jamie sticks out her tongue at him.

Erik: Harmony balances different parts of the brain, and it can actually enhance the production of certain hormones. It can chemically change the makeup and the response inside of the body. It’s a mood enhancer. It’s also way similar to smell. Smell is the—

Jamie (chuckling): The what?

Erik: Smell is the number one sense that triggers memories in the brain, the closest one to the brain.

Me: Oh! Huh.

Erik: It has many more links than other senses especially related to memory. Music is way similar to that. When you hear a song, you go, “I remember where I was when I heard it, how old I was, what was happening in my life,” and it brings back these sensations. So you gotta stay on top of your playlists. You only want the ones on there that really inspire you, well, that will help you attain the emotions that you want to have in your life.

Me: How do you do that?

Erik: Well, let’s say you listen to something and it makes you feel like shit. Don’t listen to it again. That’s how you do that, Mom.

Dur.

Me: Okay, well I thought I was going to get more than that, but…

Erik: But we didn’t even talk about the act of playing music on an instrument.

Me: Oh yeah. Let’s talk about that.

He tried so hard to teach me how to play electric guitar, but that F chord got me.

Erik: That’s completely different because you have a certain multitude of—

(Pause)

Jamie (cracking up): I don’t think that makes sense. Do it again!

Erik: You have to be able to use left and right brain at the same time.

Jamie: He’s talking about the brain, being able to use fingers and hands independently, keep a rhythm and also keep the melody going.

Erik: It requires two opposing sides to get along. You’re seeing and listening and feeling and thinking so it creates this space where you can have many—

Jamie: He calls them “body tasks” but I want him to tell me what that is. I haven’t heard that before.

Me: Okay.

Erik: The body tasks are the thinking, the feeling, the independent movement of different fingers, keeping—

Jamie: He’s saying “things” and I told him to say something else.

Erik: Keeping a rhythm and harmony going on at the same time. That’s what I mean by body tasks. When you look at other parts of your life, you’re not required to come to the table with that skill, and learning this skill helps with problem solving. It also helps you in—

Jamie: He said, “It also helps you in meditation,” and I said, ‘Well, what quality in meditation does that help with?’

Erik: You know, being able to control and discipline your thoughts to help zone—

Jamie (smiling): He calls it “zone down” rather than “zone out.”

Me: Okay.

Jamie (chuckling): Zone down. I guess that means to be centered so you can achieve meditation.

Erik: You know we can talk about this al day. Do you want to continue?

Me: Yeah, go ahead. I also want to ask you about the spiritual basis of humor too, but do you have any other pearls about music?

Erik: Everybody needs to have music on at all times. I want you to know that when I’m talking about music, I mean something you’re listening to—an ambience, a sound. If you’re in the city and the taxis and the trains and the background sounds are like music to you, then you got it going on.

Me: Okay.

Erik: I don’t mean you to overwhelm yourself. If it’s crickets and birds, then there’s your music. I don’t mean you have to have speakers 24/7. Nature has its own music as well.

Me: That’s true.

(Pause)

Erik: Ding.

I guess that’s all on music.

Me: Okay!

Have a great weekend, guys!