My Heart Wants to Sing Every Song It Hears.

It's one of the most recognizable beginnings of a movie ever. Birds tweeting, while the camera pans over the Austrian countryside. The fog clearing, and then ... that mountain. You know the one I mean. Followed by the nine words I've probably heard more than any others in my life:

The hills are alive with the sound of music

When I was little, my parents, sister, and I lived with my grandparents and my aunt and cousins in Morgantown. It was wonderful. My aunt took care of us during the day while my grandparents and parents worked, and I got to live the first few years of my life with my cousins (more like siblings) and my beloved grandparents.

In 1987, when I was three and my cousin Rebecca was four, someone taped The Sound of Music off television. Little did everyone know that VHS would change our lives. Family legend says that Becca and I got up every day for a year and wouldn't move on with our day until we had watched The Sound of Music. So when I say I've seen it hundreds of times ... I've seen it hundreds of times.

The Sound of Music has always been there. When I have gone through struggles in my life or times of anxiety or worry, I'd always watch The Sound of Music. I frequently listen to the music from the soundtrack in my car. Those words -- "I go to the hills when my heart is lonely," "... a dream that will need all the love you can give, every day of your life for as long as you live," "doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles" -- well they've always been there. The Sound of Music has always been the soundtrack of my life.

Last night I watched the ABC Sound of Music special. How funny it was to realize that I am now older than Julie Andrews was when she played Maria 50 years ago. What was so timely was that I watched it after driving home from Morgantown where I had spent the last few days with my grandparents, my aunt, and my cousin Rebecca. Rebecca and I are now 31 and 30, respectively, and Becca is a mother herself. But that ABC special took me back to being a little kid. No matter how many times I've seen those scenes or heard those songs, it will never be too many times.

Watching The Sound of Music is like getting a hug from my grandmother or sitting on my mother's lap. And, like most things I seem to like, The Sound of Music is a story of hope.

 My heart will be blessed with the sound of music

And I'll sing once more