I have a branch of my family that is extremely artsy. They all love to sing, and one cousin is actually a DJ. He has done shows in Amsterdam, Germany, a ton in England (where he lives), and two years ago, he started doing family raves, with the music and lights at an appropriate level for little ones of all ages. With everyone being in isolation/quarantine/whatever you want to call it, two weeks ago, he started the “Isolation Rave.”

He is spinning in his front room, and live streaming on FaceBook to all of his regular ravers. We have tuned in each weekend for it, and Little Man is starting to really enjoy the more electronic music that is being played, something I don’t particularly care for, so I don’t play it at home. It is amazing to be able to share this with Little Man, and his cousins in Ireland and England. We always check in, “We’re dancing over here in Illinois!” or “Coming at ya from the States!” and Little Man always gets a giggle when he hears our cousin give us a shout out. I’ve been sharing the livestreams on my personal FB page, and I’ve had some friends check it out as well. It is amazing to see how something that started in a front room in London is now being shared across the globe.

My cousin’s dad (not my uncle, he’s actually my dad’s cousin…ugh, large families and how we name each other!) sent me a video last week of my cousin, his dad, and my cousin’s 4 month old daughter. The guys were singing one of my favourite songs, “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra (An Irish Lullaby)” while my cousin was playing the guitar, and his daughter was laying on the ground, cooing and kicking her legs as they sang. For the past year or so, this has been the final song in what I sing to Little Man in order to get him to sleep. When I shared this with my cousins, they were amazed at how the song travels and we are all sharing it with the next generation.

There is a similar song in my mother’s family, “A Horse and a Flea.” When I was little, I would sit on Grampa’s knee and he would bounce me up and down and sing the song. When he passed, Gramma, my mother, aunts, and uncles made sure we all knew it. Now we are sharing it with the next generation and beyond. When Little Man was 6 months old, he and I flew with my mother to California to visit her sister, whom we had not seen in a long time. When we were there, my cousin’s daughter came over with her 1 year old, and my aunt, mother, cousin, her daughter, and I sang the song to Little Man and his cousin; 4 generations of us in the family enjoying the song.

These are just two examples from both sides of my family of how music touches us all. As we make our way through this new world of social distancing and quarantine, we can turn to music as a way to help us heal and make it through the day. Look at what some communities are doing with their music: a town in Italy where they gather on their balconies and sing together, the South Loop in Chicago where they are playing music and finding a way to connect with each other through the isolation, my cousin in England with his livestreamed isolation raves. How are you connecting with others through music?