Mary Poppins sang about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down.  For me, music is the medicine and the sweetness is that wordless place where vibration rings from a guitar string straight to my heart.

Oh, how I love words.  But the mind grows tired sometimes and there is nothing like a little pause on the mental wheels.

With music, just a few sonic notes can resonate through the air and ripple through to raise the hair on the back of your neck.  Reverberate through your core.  Unlock the front door to your most sacred dwelling with one chord change, leaving words to stammer on the doorstep still riddling the password.

Stop.  It’s time to listen.  Let the hearing feel.  Maybe move.  Or just be stilled.

It’s a sonic elixir. A sweet nectar.  Music is the way to remind me I’m alive.

Celebrating this love of music, I host a radio program, “Music as Medicine,” every other Monday on Kauai Community Radio.  The show has its own blog here in WordPress (see left sidebar) and I’ve just posted the playlist from this week’s program.

Inspired by an influx of new music, Music as Medicine’s latest post features a new track from Alexi Murdoch,

a live recording of The Head and the Heart at KEXP and a video of Alela Diane at home in Portland, OR.

Lately, it’s the Archives, here, that seem to get my greatest attention.  But this morning I’m reminded…you can’t forget the music.  It’s the soundtrack in the background behind all of these wild, running thoughts.  Songs that weave together all of these stories.  The spoonful of sweetness that brings the flavor to the moment – rich and delicious.