These days I’m finding it tough to “Keep in the Sunlight.” The news of the world and our country is overwhelming, friends and family are going through rough times, and, in my own life, I feel I’m hanging on by a thread. But tonight, after months and months of promising myself I would, I finally sat down at the piano and played. I didn’t play for long, nor did I play my usual Classical pieces. I just played through some random show tunes and movie themes I had collected in a binder years ago. And when I stumbled across “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and played it, my soul found peace.
The song was almost deleted from the 1939 film, but thank goodness for us, (and them–it won Academy Award for Best Song) a couple of wise people worked hard to keep it in the film. The then-16-year old, Judy Garland, sings it beautifully, of course, and it is the most remembered part of the movie. I don’t know if movie makers these days don’t have faith in their audiences or in their actors, but it is a rare thing now to let a movie slow down to this pace and let the audiences actually connect. At any rate, hearing this song and watching it brings me peace and hope. And, really, the only way to move forward right now is by taking a breath and allowing myself to feel hopeful.
If you haven’t seen it in awhile, here’s Judy Garland singing, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” (I really wish it wasn’t sandwiched between YouTube stuff and with words below, but there it is.)