Stave Magazine: Editor's Desk

The Power of Music to Heal

It's not secret that I have a life outside of music. It's called a day job.  I have one.  However, unlike many who think of the day job as an 8 hour sacrifice, mine is fluid with my music philosophy - the Peace from the Porch Project philosophy.

I manage a rural, non-profit hospice.

Tonight, I was going over some music for a fundraising event in October.  The event supports a rural cancer resource agency.  It's really kind of hokey, small town fun.  The other non-secret is that the small town is the one I grew up in.  My hospice cares for people in that town.  So, imagine how much of an out-of-body experience it is for me to admit one of my school mates' parents to my service.  I have learned to take on a bizarre protective layer that keeps me cool, distant and professional.  It's like window shopping compassion for the family.  They can see me, but they do not ever really touch me.  It works for me in reverse, too.

Yet, I'm a musician, so I am usually the musical part of any memorial or honorary event that involves community members.  For this particular October event, I scheduled myself to start thinking and working on it in May, so I started the song review process to decide what would be best to perform.  I know I need fun, inspirational and cathartic.  Sometimes they weave into one tune.  When that happens, I usually find my self suddenly crying.  It's not just an emotional dump.  I usually unwittingly visualize one of the "moms" from my childhood, that has been in my team's care, and then I start to cry.  I just did that tonight.  I was reviewing "Affirmation" from "Peace from the Porch, Vol. 1" and this particular lady came into my head because, like the song, she never surrendered or backed down.  She lived every day that she could fully.  In fact, more fully than many of you healthy folks reading this!  It was a sad inspirational kind of cry.  The kind that is healthy for a person like me to have.  One cannot carry hundreds of deaths around and not let some of it out through tears.  It's the human emotional pressure valve, and in my line of work, everybody has to use it or go crazy.

So here's the question or request I pose to you:  In the comment section, tell me about a healing moment you've had with music.  If you know much about me, you might be a facebook friend, or you might know this lyric from one of my songs (which I openly admit I stole from a David Hare play) - "There is a place at the corner of the universe where the babble of the world is kept."

Babble away, my friends...