My So-Called Sensory Life

Today’s gift:  Music! In all its glorious, inspiring, contagious forms.

We are a music family — we love to listen, play, dance.  And we all have different tastes and preferences.

It’s fun to discover new tunes and since the last two movies I watched have great soundtracks — for dancing and singing along –and great narratives, I’m sharing them here as today’s blog post gifts.  Thanks to the brilliance and ease of Spotify, I can find new songs or soundtracks in a click or two.

CHEF is a savory story about family, food, and passion.

BEGIN AGAIN is a delightful romantic film (by the creator of Once) about life lessons, love, and self-discovery.

I won’t reveal too much more — just to say that both films will elevate, inspire, and hopefully ignite something in you to really stop and listen — to the music, real or imagined, and to the soundtrack of your life.  There is great joy when a tune speaks to your soul.

Happy Listening!

Songwriters
Brisebois, Danielle / Alexander, Gregg / Lashley, Nick / Southwood, Nick

Published by
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Tonight we played an impromptu game:  we made a random playlist for M and asked him to guess all the artists and songs.

It’s incredible to witness the positive gifts that come from  M’s auditory sensitivity.  His musical ear is so finely tuned.

His scored 100 tonight — he identified all the songs and artists from The Beatles to The Black Eyed Peas.  He rocked the house with his knowledge and dancing and was one happy boy.

With the holidays around the corner, tonight’s early gifts were a surprising delight.

A little secret for today’s gift:  M serenades me each day.

Imagine how you would feel if a sweet little boy sang to you daily?

This week, he’s performing  “Molly Malone” – the tune he is practicing for his class concert later this month.

My devoted blog readers (thank you!) — you already know how music calms and soothes M.  In fact, music has been another important part of M’s sensory breaks, sensory diet, reward systems, as well as his OT (occupational therapy).  It is a giant piece of his auditory sensory regulation and challenges.

I decided to do a little bit of research on the history of serenades.  My googling yielded the following:

“In music, a serenade (or serenata, Italian) is, in its most general sense, a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone’s honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music. In fact, the word Serenade is derived from the word sereno, which means calm.”

The last line – that the word “is derived from the word sereno, which means calm“ — struck me and I felt a piece of the M puzzle slide into place.  In addition to creating a lovely moment, M sings to regulate his sensory needs.  He literally performs to calm himself.

Alive, alive o!, alive, alive o!

I wonder if he’ll take requests?