The Four Universal Healing Salves

Gbarielle Roth said that the four universal healing salves are dancing, singing, storytelling and silence. I have found her words to be true!

In the past few years, I haven’t gotten to sing much, but on Saturday I had so much fun singing with an old friend who brought a karaoke machine to our house. I loved the songs he chose to share with us—they brought back such great memories. The main benefit, I thought, though, was getting to sing at the top of my lungs!

John had us sing “Moonshadow” by Cat Stevens and that awakened memories of university days. We sang some Gordon Lightfoot tunes, such as “In the Early Morning Rain”, another great tune from my university years. Songs like “Welcome to my World” were new to me, and so sweet to be introduced to! There were some Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tunes, which brought me memories of Mom and Dad’s living room and these songs being played by my Mom at full blast, while she vacuumed.

I haven’t given much thought to why singing is one of the four healing salves, but for now I would say one reason is that songs can evoke memories of happy days in the past, and the enjoyment of those memories is enhanced by singing with other people who love the same songs and have happy memories associated with them too.

I don’t know how I missed having a karaoke experience up until now, but I was so grateful for my introduction to it! During COVID times, when it is difficult to create opportunities for singing together, in person, safely, I look forward to the days when we can do so again!