Learning to whistle is an important rite of passage. I’ll never forget sitting on the front steps of my grandparents’ house, next to my great granny, learning how to whistle. We tried the “train whistle,” where we clasped our hands, stood our thumbs up next to each other, and slowly bent them to make a small opening. I tried for hours but couldn’t do it.

Then she showed me how to hold my lips in an “o” shaped whistle. Anytime a man walked by on the sidewalk, she’d let out that whistle, “Weeee, wooooo.” I soon realized this type of whistle brought unwanted comments, looks, and conversations with strangers. I begged Granny to stop doing it when people walked by because it embarrassed me. That was only fuel for the fodder.

A friend in school showed me another type of whistling where they held a blade of grass between their thumbs and made a shrill whistle heard across a huge area. On occasion I managed this whistle and learned that if performed inside an enclosed space, the ramifications were terrible.

Like learning to blow bubbles or snapping our fingers, learning to whistle is an essential milestone of childhood. Even after all the methods I had been exposed to, I still had to figure out the way that worked best for me.

I’ll never forget when my first real whistle happened. I was sitting in the car blowing air out of my fish shaped lips with no success. I took a deep breath between each try, and one time I sucked in that deep breath with my lips still in the whistle shape and a true, melodic whistle occurred. So, for the first year, I whistled by sucking air in instead of blowing air out. After much practice, I was able to eventually whistle the correct way and even make a tune. The iconic Andy Griffith tune was the first song I wanted to learn. Then most any tune I tried could be whistled at will.

There’s something about whistling that adds pep to my step. When I’m in the middle of a mundane task, I often find myself mindlessly whistling. Or when I’m in the yard working. I remember my grandma whistling while folding and putting away towels and sheets. My mom often does the same. My husband has started doing it while completing household chores and sometimes even my oldest follows suit.

Whistling, though often mindless, seems to make the completion of tasks a bit easier. Whistling also adds happiness and joy to our attitudes. So why not whistle while you work?

Are you whistling while you work? Are you adding moments of joy to your day through tunes from your “o” shaped lips? Give it a try and watch God turn that frown upside down.

(Interested in hearing a professional whistler? Check out The Whistler.com or visit his Youtube channel)

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