The Power of Music - For Healing, Health and Happiness

The power of music is incredible. I have experienced so much happiness from music that I can't imagine my life without it. I also passed that love onto my 4 kids and they have introduced me to an amazing amount of great music.

When I was a kid I had severe asthma and in those days ( late 50s ) they did not have medicine to relieve an attack. So I came up with my own remedy. If I was out playing and took an attack, I would make my way home. Get a stack of 45s ( small single song records ) and stack them on the spindle of the Hi-Fi. Then I would lay on my back on the floor and put the speakers on either side of my head and listen to music until I could totally relax my body and get over not being able to breath. That's where my love for music came from. It definitely would heal an attack and bring me back to health.

As I grew, my love of music expanded. I ,of course, was a Beatles fan. My brother became a guitar player and that increased the amount of different music in the house. I was thrilled by all the new sounds and it seemed my asthma was more controllable. I started becoming more interested in the music and less introverted about my asthma. Don't get me wrong. I still had terrible bouts where I would end up in the hospital in oxygen tents and on breathing apparatuses and of course my fair share of experimental drugs. I remember being in the hospital the summer when The Loving Spoonful came out with Summer in the City. I remember singing along with it together with 2 other guys my age in there.

Then my brother took me on the road with the band he was in!! This was incredible even though it was just in our local provinces. We had so much fun that my love for music grew a thousand fold. I met a lot of musicians and different people and actually got a reputation as a good person to have on the road. As a result another local band hired me and I stayed on the road for about 4 years. As a young man, I must say that it helped me grow in many, many ways. And still my love and knowledge of music and understanding of what it takes to get to the top grew.

Nowadays I work for the largest musical instrument sales and rental company in Canada as a band instrument repair technician. All day I repair and test flutes, trumpets, trombones, French horns, tubas, euphonium and saxes. I love this job!! I work with musicians and listen to music all day while I work. What could be better.

So the power of music for healing , health and happiness is something I think can help in an otherwise troubled world.