With Its Highs and Lows, Life Can Be a Meaningful Melody

By Ndaba Sibanda

When vocal and instrumental sounds
are glued together in a seamless marriage,
they give birth to a splendor we call a song.

Songs are therapies for the soul,
priceless and perfect joys of life,
soothers and curators of memories.

Songs boost our general mental wellbeing,
our physical health, levels of motivation, confidence and peace;
and make us feel good, and cope with negative experiences.

What if life were a simple song
we sing through our mazes and miseries
to the amazement of temptations, storms and seasons?

What if we sieved sanity, serenity and meaning
from the madness, flatness, meaninglessness
and emptiness of drudgery, demons, dins and distractions?

Instruments can be instrumental to our moments
of want, desire, delight, dancing, paleness and peace,
and are various: djembe, ukulele, piano, violin, and balafon.

Precious percussive instruments consist of shakers, amahlwayi
or hand rattles, or leg rattles and izikeyi or wooden clappers;
xylophone and lamellophone or the thump-piano like the mbira.

Vocal and instrumental is a combination that creates harmony
and happiness. Songs build self-esteem, improve one’s mood.
Singing can give one meaning, mental power and purpose.

Songs can be effective coping mechanisms.
Singing: what a hobby, a builder of self, courage, a dancing distraction.
Self-expression, soul- expression, self-belief, self-worth and self-respect.