My friend Mark, whom I’ve know since third grade, taught me to love Broadway musicals. We spent hours in high school listening to and singing along with albums from famous Broadway shows like Hello Dolly, Carousel, Oklahoma , and South Pacific – and more obscure shows like A Little Night Music and Dear World.

One of my all-time favorite songs from a Broadway musical comes from Guys and Dolls. “If I Were a Bell ” is such a joyful song about that first rush of being in love.

Well, if I were a bell, I’d be a singing bowl, which resonates in such a curious and enticing way that it calls everyone who hears it to stop and listen. The sound of a singing bowl produces a centering effect in almost everyone. Though it is bowl shaped, a singing bowl is a type of standing bell that has been used throughout Asia for personal wellness, meditation, and religious practice.

I use the singing bowl in almost every gathering where I need to mark the passage of time or signal a change in activity. It works with people of all ages – from two years old to eighty. I ask people to raise their hands when they can no longer hear the sound of the bowl. Depending on the way the bowl is struck, the ringing tone can last for twenty seconds or longer.

The tones of singing bowls are dependent on the diameter of the bowl. Smaller bowls, though less expensive, make higher-pitched sounds which to me are not as alluring as the sounds that emanate from the larger bowls. If you’d like to see and hear different sizes of singing bowls, Emile de Leon of Temple Sounds is featured on a U Tube video. Type in Gong and Tibetan Singing Bowl Meditation.

To find a singing bowl you like, it is best to test them out in person. But I have not heard a singing bowl that was without charms of its own. You can mail-order a singing bowl from the following places:

House of Musical Traditions, now in Tacoma Park , MD , has specialized in instruments from the U.S. and around the world since 1972. They have a blog -musicaltradtions.blogspot.com - and you can find them on My Space under houseofmusicaltradtions.

Ten Thousand Villages is one of the world’s first and largest fair trade organizations. They work with artisans in more than 30 countries in Africa , Asia and Latin America to offer jewelry, home décor items, gifts, and some musical instruments. Their web site lists locations of stores all over the United States and Canada .

Lark in the Morning has been selling international musical instruments since 1974. Stores in San Francisco , Seattle , WA , and Medocino, CA. On the website, you can take a virtual tour of the stores.

I remember taking baths on a weekly basis during my freshman year in college. On Friday nights when most dorm residents were out partying, I would clean out the only bathtub on our floor, then fill the tub and soak away the stress of being in a strange new place far from home. Now that I am in my own home, with access to a theoretically cleaner tub, I just don’t take baths any more. A book I came across recently is making me reconsider my preference for quick showers. It is called Spiritual Bathing: Healing Rituals and Traditions from Around the World.  My daughter scorns bath taking as “soaking in your own filth,” but bathing for hygiene is not what the book authors, Rosita Arvigo and Nada Epstein have in mind.

They say “from baptisms to Mayan baths to waterfalls, tubs, and saunas, spiritual bathing is a deeply healing, connecting, and soul-fulfilling practice. We know that it feels wonderful to soak in a warm bath or swim in the sea, that it is blissful to meditate upon the sound of river water rushing over rocks, or that the sight of sunlit drops bursting from a waterfall is magnificent. But how often do we think of these experiences as spiritual? Yet in ancient times the spiritual essence of water evoked a sense of wonder, reminding people that they were threads in the divine web of life.”

Like many people, I struggle with an over-scheduled life. Often I don’t even take the time to remember that I need to feel connected in what Jerome Berryman reminds us are the four great relationships: God, self, other people, and nature. Arvigo and Epstein say that mindful bathing can help me connect in those ways. “Spiritual bathing strengthens our tenuous connection with the natural world and its reflection of the divine. Baths not only ease our passage through the stresses of daily life; they also separate the extraordinary from the mundane, transport us to a holier place and mark rites of passage. Spiritual bathing can open the door to inner guidance, uplift the soul and foster a more reverent, peaceful state of mind. “

Lady Bridget (OK, she seems to be a practitioner of Wicca, but I draw from all traditions) says, “There are many times when taking a ritual or spiritual bath is important or appropriate:

· Your first night in your new home

· The night before you start a new job, or promotion

· To get rid of angry feelings

· After you have been sick, to help purify and cleanse the spirit.

 · When you need to rest · When you feel tempted to do something questionable*

· When you feel tired, depressed, or alone”

*Next time I feel like having a late-night snack, I plan to take a long soak in the tub instead.