I had been wanting to see The Greatest Showman since I first started hearing about it. It’s a musical, it has Hugh Jackman, and I’d heard great reviews. What more could you ask for? I finally got to see it and it did not disappoint. It was so good I went back to take my daughter to see it.
But I want to talk for a minute about the circumstances surrounding my getting a chance to see it. The day before had been complete hell and I won’t go into all the details but I was literally at the end of my rope. I knew if I didn’t reach out and ask for some help, I was going to crash magnificently.
I reached out and asked someone to take my kids for just an hour the next day. I just needed to be able to walk away for an hour. Leave my responsibilities and breathe. Prior to dropping off my kids, I was shaking and the anxiety started to escalate, both from dealing with what had happened the day before and an episode with one of my children right before we left. Instead of one hour, my friend gave me three.
One of the first thoughts that entered my head when I left her home was that I should see if I could make a showing of The Greatest Showman. I raced to the theatre and sat down just a few minutes after it started.
For the first half hour, I was gripping my phone case as I was filled with dread that she would call and need me to pick up my kids. After that, I gradually started to relax. But what was relaxing me wasn’t the fact that I had left my cares behind for a couple hours, though that certainly helped. It was the music.
Music has a literal power that is real. Studies have been conducted and music has been found to aid in the growth of plants, help people study, provide not just comfort but decrease pain. Think about it. How many times has a song lifted you up and made you feel like you can get through things? This is one of many reasons why people work out to music, it helps them push that much further. How many times in your life is music tied to a memory or event and made it more meaningful? It’s no accident that the important parts of a film are often filled with music.
I sat there in that darkened theatre watching a movie that had about as much fiction as fact, but the music was moving me. It was the music that was healing my soul. It was the music that was making me stop, breathe, relax and remember who I am.
I am a creator, a musician, a writer. The Arts feed my soul and without them, it starves. I know this and yet I forget to feed this part of me.
Even if you aren’t a musician or lover of the Arts, they can still heal you, and bring peace to your soul. I think perhaps that is why most religions also have a canon of music that accompanies their worship. Words combined with music transcends what words alone can do. It reaches places within us that are hidden, internal, the place where our soul lives. The place that is the “real” us.
If you haven’t seen The Greatest Showman yet, I highly recommend it. But more than that, take the time to feed your soul. Turn up the music.
