Amelia Draws

I have always wanted to live in a musical and on two special occasions I did

I find spontaneous singing so moving and exhilarating. Whether it is the football fans swarming the streets after the game, loudly singing the champions anthem. Or, the crowds being swept up in song as they leave the concert’s venue. I love the organic chants of the protestors as they march and the songs, heavy with the weight of history, that get sung together in sports stadiums around the world. Or, together on a tram in Melbourne on March 17th when a drunk fella is able to coax a carriage into singing Danny Boy with him. Because singing together is contagious and all it takes is for somebody to sing the first line.

It was a perfect Melbourne morning. Crisp, blue sky and the sun hot enough to warm but not to boil. The perfect morning for a school fete spent chasing after friends, eating chocolate crackles and hassling our parents for another 50cents

However, the thing about beautiful mornings in Melbourne is that they don’t always become beautiful afternoons and this afternoon’s sky had darkened underneath a dense, deep, grey cloud. Thunder was starting to roll.

The stormbroke just as we hopped in the car to head to a music lesson. A storm that pummelled Melbourne with rain. Thick grey slabs of it. People on the side walks were wading through the water that rushed over their shoes and ankles. Puddles so deep they spayed high into the air as the car drove through them.

We drove to and from the lesson as the rain continued to bucket down. Water poured over footpaths and gushed down storm water drains.

Then as abruptly as it started the storm stopped. The sky cleared as we arrived back at the school, back to help pack up the fete. Back to a schoolyard with a refreshed blue sky, adults busy cleaning up the mess and a huge, knee high puddle in the centre of the playground, all my friends splashing in it. I ran to join them. To skip about shrieking and kicking water into the air. The giggling, so much giggling. We were soaked to our joyous bones.

This was when Micheal at the top of his lungs sang:

“Love is in the air every where I look around”

The most popular song in the playground, we all knew the lyrics So we all together sung:

“Love is in the air in every sight and every sound”

I don’t know if I’m being foolish

I don’t know if I’m being wise

But its something I have to believe in

Because its there when I look in your eyes

Faces full of smiles. We sang louder and louder

” Oohhh, ooh ohh”

And louder up to the crescendo, in unison, at the top of our lungs:

“LOVE IS IN THE AIR!”

” ooooh oooh oh oh’

******

It was another blue sky day, this time in May with my dear friends Stacey, Sash, Tess and myself. Four dangly, gangly teens walking from our concrete block of a school to the park where we spent lunchtime.

We walked two abreast, Tess and I at the front chattering school girl chatter and the others doing the same at the back.

May is mostly a dreary, wet grey month so the blue sky spread extra cheer. Which is why I found myself quietly singing:

“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day”,

Tess turned to me and she sang:

“When its cold outside I have the month of May”.

Stacey, with a giggle, called from behind:

“I guess you’d say, oohhh”

Never one to spoil the moment Sash knew her line and sang dramatically, just as we entered the park:

“What can make feel this way?”

Our voices met in unison, now we were grinning our goofy heads off

“Ohhhh ohhhh”

As we sang we each danced a twirl with a little foot work that landed us neatly on the grass to meet the last line

“Well, it’s s my girl, my girl talking about my girl’

“oh ohh ohhh”

All of life can’t be a musical of course but if you are ever in a moment where someone sings the first line – join in.