SARAH SCHMALENBERGER

SOUNDING FREE is a story of becoming whole  through music.

​

What if you could describe your life as a roadmap chronicling destinations along a timeline? A map like that would include traveling companions, roads less traveled, layers of past, present, and future, all on a map of stories grounded in not only times but also the sounds of a place.  That's what I have done with this book.

​

Music threads through my stories, mapping tunes and also the people who loved me fiercely and steadfastly along routes toward transformation. Foremost among the people is David, my beloved spouse of thirty-eight years. His jazzy soul drummed into my life precisely at a life-or-death point on my life's map. Music teachers, peers, friends, and students also appear along the rugged terrain of my stories. These relationships were forged along winding roads of shared tales and tunes as we helped each other through whatever our lives handed us. A formidable army of allies are plotted on this book's musical map. 

​

My life's road map of stories reveal "what happened next" through music, my steady navigator from a very young age. Music has ably wended its way around the detours and roadblocks of my life, changing course away from dead ends of despair wrought by trauma. Abundantly resourceful, music steered me through many disastrous destinations on the map of my past. Nearly every chapter in this book pinpoints a musical moment pivotal to transcending trauma. Browse the list of tunes on this site - I'll do my best to update and link to favorite recordings. 

​

Richly rewarding themes of endurance, renewal, and redemption reverberate throughout this book. The traumas in my life reveal wounds whose healing required a synergistic blend of music, nature and unconditional love. Their medicinal powers restored me, and I revel in the miracle of well-being. It's as though a symphony of joyful abundance now resounds in my life.

 

Writing my story has deepened my understanding of not only my own suffering, but especially the sufferings of others. All of it - and all of us - are seekers traveling a shared journey toward wholeness. May we make a joyful noise in celebration of being here, still here, fully alive to the beautiful truth of sounding ourselves free from what happened to us.

​

​

​

​