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Beyond A Rainbow

A Story of Healing

By January SunshinePublished 4 years ago 9 min read
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Dear reader,

I want to tell you a story. It is not a story with an ending or even one with a beginning. It is a story of being. A story of healing.

Introduction and Musings

There is a part of my soul that has always existed in the songs that remind me of who I am. Music is a subtle but powerful love — like the way the layers of sounds in a song speak to me, just like the way the wind speaks to the trees. Sometimes it is so soft and subtle that it feels like a secret, but it is the most honest truth I have ever witnessed.

We move through this world like feathers in the wind, riding the breath of something far greater than we could ever know. But we feel it, we embrace it, and we love it, even if we are blind to it. It is in our DNA and is our very nature. And what I have come to realize is, I am that which I seek in this beautiful dance of life. Nothing is solitary, even the process of becoming is communal. I am an accumulation of every person I’ve met, experience I’ve had, and song I’ve listened to. With this wisdom comes the understanding that I am everything and nothing, simple and true. This is the unknowing that set me free — that allowed me to be, me.

I want you to close your eyes just for a moment and inhale deeply.

Now pause and exhale.

Does the sound of your breath remind you of a truth far greater than you could ever know?

For me, that is the power of sound, the power of life itself. So when I think about the story behind the song that changed my life, it is difficult to find the words. Not because there are a lack of words that represent the experience, but more so because my relationship with this song seems to be perpetually changing and blossoming. So I suppose I'll start, here...

(“Over the Rainbow,” sung by the great Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” in 1939).

Miracles and Rainbows

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue

And the dreams

That you dare to dream

Really do come true (Yip Harburg, 1939).

The first time I heard this song, I was four years old. I remember sitting on the carpet, legs crossed, staring up at the television, watching Dorothy sing words that seemed to mirror the song of my soul. I had no idea that 20 years later this song would influence the trajectory of my entire life.

Music was my everything at the time and the Big Easy was calling my name from the shores of the Big Island in Hawaii. Before moving to New Orleans, I would spend my evenings playing Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole’s rendition of "Over the Rainbow" on my ukulele. It was the very first song I learned on my uke; it felt like a natural choice. And so I would serenade the trees and the waves, gaining inspiration from the Hawaiian skies and misty rainbows. My first music project seemed to form itself under soft sunsets and coki frog choirs. Those days, an effortless freedom flowed through me and gave birth to the songs of my heart. After finishing my first music project, I decided to move to New Orleans and follow a new rainbow in search of my dream.

I was 24 when I moved to New Orleans Louisiana; I found myself chopping apples for 70 hungry mouths in the kitchen at a preschool. I was singing Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” one day, when a teacher came in and mentioned a local dementia hospice was looking for musical entertainment.

“You’d be a perfect fit,”she smiled. I remember looking up from my chopping board and wiping my hands on my apron, thinking of all the songs I would sing.

“I’ll do it!”I agreed faster than she could finish explaining the opportunity. I did not know it at the time, but that pivotal moment began to piece together all the miracles to come and all the ones that had made their debut in my life.

Healing and The Unknown

I will never forget the first time I sang to one of my non-verbal, dementia patients in New Orleans. The moment I began singing "Over the Rainbow," she lit up and sang along with me, word for word. I met her for the first time that day and for just a moment we were both together in that room, her eyes locked with mine, nostalgia flowing from her spirit. My whole body pulsed with joy and inspiration, witnessing what felt like a miracle. Day after day this experience repeated itself with other individuals suffering from dementia and Alzheimers’ disease.

Within these music healing performances I witnessed miraculous increases in cognitive awareness, motor function, lucidity, and emotional wellness. Consequently, I dove into researching the intersection between music and the brain. I was insatiable. For weeks I poured myself into case studies, films, and books. I filled up giant whiteboards with a frantic curiosity, staring at conclusions derived from science, metaphysics, quantum mechanics, and music.

I just knew, I knew I had to continue, regardless of having no direction or real need to discover the intersection between these conclusions. And this knowing, it was a soft knowing. A lot like the knowing I experienced as a child watching “The Wizard of Oz” for the first time. A lot like the knowing I felt when I chose the first song I’d learn on my ukulele. A lot like the knowing that filled my heart when I moved to New Orleans. I knew there was a solution, an answer to my question: “How can I use music to heal the world?”

A Dream and A Vision

One day, after hours of singing to patients, I got home and sat on my couch. I stared at the chaos on my whiteboard in front of me and opened my phone. I stumbled upon a startup event at a coworking space in downtown New Orleans; there was a cohort of venture capitalists and startup advisors coming to town in two days, offering free advice to startups. Just moments later the idea for my very first startup appeared in my mind. I spent the next 48 hours working tirelessly on my business plan, organizing months of research and conclusions, and developing branding.

The morning of the event arrived and I was terrified. Despite entering completely unknown territory, I felt assured; my dream was my guiding force that day. I walked into the building with a light heart and shaking hands, never having pitched this idea, let alone any other business venture, to a group of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. To my surprise I was received with warmth and enthusiasm.

I finished presenting my business concept and saw smiles and curiosity on the faces before me. At the conclusion of the meeting the advisor invited me to an international technology convention in Nashville. I left the event that day with brighter eyes and lighter feet. My mind seemed to slow down and the colors of the afternoon sun lit up the city block. The rhythmic clap of my shoes on the pavement rooted me in a mindful presence I had not felt in months. “I am here, really truly here and alive,” I thought.

After everything over the course of 25 years, that very moment gave birth to a new vision. In many ways it was a vision I had known since I was four — to empower people all over the world with healing that starts within, with the simple magic of music. But for the first time it felt real, tangible, and deserved.

Seven months later, I found myself writing the official pitch for my startup venture, for the event in Nashville. I did not know where to start, but I had a vision, I had a knowing. I began with what I knew, a song close to my heart, a song that in many ways started it all: “Over the Rainbow."

“I’d begin the pitch by singing the opening two verses of the song,” I thought, drawing in my listeners with a nostalgic melody reminiscent of their childhoods. Somehow this song mirrors an existential essence that lives within us all. An essence founded in infinite hope, inspiration, and dreams. It became evident to me, that each note and melody of this song, not only connects us to one another but connects to our individual truths.

The event has come and gone, and I suppose that is a story for another time.

Fin

Music has the magical key that unlocks the time space continuum, the doorway to the non-physical worlds all around us and to the infinite potential that flows from within us. Songs that feel like sunshine on my cheeks are the ones that hold the secrets to my heart. It may have taken me 25 years to realize it, but this song holds the secrets to my soul that I have yet to discover. Only upon writing this am I realizing how this song has guided my life so magically and somewhat softly. Like the song, the guidance it has provided has been sweet, gentle, and true.

This ebb and flow, give and take, rise and fall, is the cherished thing we call life. We are told that magic is a thing of fantasy and fiction, a childish perspective and a denial of what is “real.” I see magic quite differently. Magic is as real as the air we breathe and it fills my soul each and every day through the music that dawns me. The universe has a rather playful sense of humor, and I am eternally grateful for its poetic guidance and romantic manifestations. "Over the Rainbow" gave me a dream to believe in, a path to follow, and an inspiration to gain wisdom from. The funny thing about a rainbow is, it has no end, a lot like this journey of life. So, I’ll continue to follow my rainbow and realize my dreams along the way.

Yours truly,

January Sunshine

humanity
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About the Creator

January Sunshine

Songbird. Storyteller. Healer.

Sharing love with the universe through the magic of music.

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