To this day, no matter where I am, or what I’m doing, each time I hear Barry Manilow’s beautiful song; Could It Be Magic, I can’t help but feel astonishment and gratitude. It was the unique power of the music and the opening bars of that song, which Barry Manilow based on Chopin’s Prelude in C Minor that was the catalyst to my personal epiphany of self-discovery. Awakening me to a deep sense of joy, love, hope, empathy, courage, wonder, acceptance, gratitude and an abounding zest for life I’ve never felt before.

Five years ago, my life was that of the fairly typical suburban housewife and mother (to three sons whom I adore). Yet like many women, I was so absorbed in the responsibilities of family, I’d become dormant and unaware that my personal essence of self was slipping away. In fact, it wasn’t until my oldest son prepared to leave the nest that I was filled with an insidious sadness and a creeping fear that when the day came for my younger sons to embark on their lives, thus ending my role of mommy, I’d no longer have an identity and my purpose would cease to exist. As a dear friend eloquently stated in one profound sentence; you lost perspective on being the shero of your own life story.

Now, in affording myself permission to be empowered by the onus of my own existence, I no longer live mindlessly by rote waiting for external purpose to give me reason or fulfillment. I’ve learned life doesn’t happen to us, we each have the ability to make life happen for us. Through that insight I savor moments, big and small, as they occur, because each one contains an opportunity to reach beyond what is and discover what could be. I’ve developed an acute awareness to feel emotions with no imposed boundaries and I’ve unearthed passions I didn’t know I had. I’ve opened my heart and mind to the wonders of new beginnings and learned to pragmatically accept heartbreaking, often unexpected endings. All of this has led to peacefulness and joy in who I am and a hunger to discover all I can be.

Prior to my self-discovery, I believed once you reached adulthood and chose a path in life, it was there you stayed until your final breath. Of course I knew we could grow, evolve, enhance upon what we have, but truly open a new chapter and start from the bottom up? No way! That was the heartrending-feel-good stuff fictional books and movies of hope were made of, not real life, at least not my real life!

Music, having a sensitizing effect on the psyche; healing, calming, nurturing, having the ability to physically and emotionally change us from the inside out? No I didn’t believe that either. So what if professionals who knew far more than I said it was possible? Hearing lyrics strung together and set to catchy melodies was enjoyable, often-memorable, but had no tangible effect, at least not on me.

And Barry Manilow; his music was nice, but I didn’t believe he or his music were particularly special...

That’s what I believed until the early morning hours of April 15, 2007. It’s then the aforementioned three concepts I doubted converged and began a journey that ultimately would change my life.

Inspiration comes to us in many ways, often in a sudden unexpected burst. I’m proof positive of that fact. I’ve pondered many times how my life would be had I not played that song at that particular moment. Would I have discovered my new path anyway? Would I have discovered the person I am now, or would the moment have passed me by? And why was it that Barry Manilow’s music had such an empowering effect?

Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, the late author of Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind, cuts through our steadfast logical intellect to find unarguable proof that reality is filled with more magic and excitement than we ever dreamed possible. I found it fascinating as she shared the way in which we reach conclusions by relying on the tangible evidence within an experience to explain the unexplainable. In the grand scheme of things, I firmly believe everything happens for a reason; there are no mistakes or accidents. However, to over-analyze and ask why destroys the magic, creates fear and forces our rational humanness to take over, control and often deny what might be. And so seeking deep logical explanations to what I experienced is not my desire. I prefer to live with the magic that is and allow it be for its own sake.

What I know for certain; something in the music of Manilow connected the dots of my psyche, woke me up and shook me back to life. Bursting the bubble of numb indifference I’d grown accustomed to, where I took the good for granted and buried the negative so deeply within, the feelings became septic and manifested in ways I didn’t understand.

Yes, I was transformed in those early morning hours and unbeknownst to me at the time, my life would never be the same. I had no inkling of what was to unfold. Perhaps it’s best that we can’t see into the future. Revisiting the memories of this past half decade, if I’d known then what I know now, I’m not sure I’d have had the courage to even take the first step, and God knows I’m so happy that I did.

Dedicated to Barry Manilow,

And those who through unwavering passion in sharing their talent awaken the human soul to feel...