Amid headlines of war, chaos and uncertainty, it’s time to turn off the news and think happy thoughts. March is Sing With Your Child Month, and I’ve got a fun treat for you today.

Welcome to the 153^rd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a quote of the week. Along with the joy of singing, this week’s edition looks at methane as a super pollutant, British Columbia’s stance on the time change, and Toyota’s investment in the circular economy.

On my mind this week: Set aside your troubles and sing with a child

March is Sing With Your Child Month. It’s an opportunity to highlight the value of the simple and meaningful act of singing together.

Regular readers know I love to sing. I’ve written before about the power of music to unite people, and the benefits I’ve reaped from my own musical experience singing in choirs and bands.  

Naturally, I always sang to my daughters they were small. In fact, I started singing to them before they were born. Then, from the moment they took their first breath, singing was a big part of our play and time together. We had a huge repertoire of fun songs that we sang together.

During one of my decluttering sessions, I found a cassette tape of my daughter Laura and I singing together when she was about three years old. Listening to that tape brought back so many happy memories. I made a digital copy because I wanted to preserve and share it.

Here is the recording of us singing Skinnamarink, a song made popular by Canadian children’s entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram. It’s just a minute long and I hope it will make you smile. Laura was so enthusiastic when we recorded this, but she was even more excited to listen to it. A few seconds into the recording she stops singing and says, “and then let’s listen to it!” That makes me smile every time I hear it.

Hearing this makes me wish I had made more recordings of me singing with my girls.

Benefits of singing together

From my experience, I’ve seen the many benefits of singing with your child. It helps with language development, provides valuable bonding time, creates wonderful memories, and is soothing for both the parent and the child.

Thinking of the soothing power of music always reminds me of my niece. Many years ago when she was little, my niece used to cry every time she looked at me. This went on for months. One day, my sister was stuck and needed me to babysit. As soon as she left, the crying started. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to sing. Guess what! The crying stopped almost immediately, and my niece and I never had a problem again. Proof of music’s soothing powers.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• The weather is warming up and I got outside for a walk almost every day this week.
• I got feedback on the draft of my chapter for the upcoming Retirement Coaches Association book. Now I need to get busy with my edits.
• Thursday was the first night of this year’s Alpha Course at my church. We have a terrific group of volunteers and guests this year.

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

Methane is a climate super pollutant

We hear a lot about carbon, but methane is a pollutant 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In fact, scientists attribute about one-third of warming to methane emissions.

About half of those methane emissions comes from the global food system, caused by emissions from livestock, food waste in landfills, rice cultivation, and burning of crop residue.  

(Source: The Carbon Almanac)

British Columbia says no more time change

Last night, residents of British Columbia shifted their clocks by an hour for the last time. With last night’s time change, British Columbia will stay on daylight time forever.

I’ve never understood why shifting our clocks by an hour twice a year is such a big deal for some people. However, I believe if we’re going to do away with the time change, we should follow the sun and stick to standard time and not daylight time.

Scientists confirm the importance of morning light for those who struggle with seasonal depression. We’ll see how British Columbians feel after a winter of rain and 9 a.m. sunrises.

(Source: CBC News)

Toyota opens new circular factory

Toyota Motor Europe recently announced plans to open a new circular factory in Poland. The factory will recover reusable components from vehicles at the end of their life cycle, along with valuable raw materials including copper, steel, aluminum and plastics. Toyota will use materials recovered in the production of new vehicles.

Toyota already has a circular factory in the United Kingdom. Let’s hope we see one in North America soon!

(Source: Toyota Motor Europe)

Quote of the week

This week’s news has been depressing to say the least. This quote form Karen Trefzger felt appropriate to share.

In an era of fear-mongering, let’s find ways to be hope-mongers.

Karen Trefzger

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I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.