Music is the universal language of mankind.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space
between the notes and curl my back to the loneliness.
Maya Angelou
Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life
bringing peace, abolishing strife.
Khalil Gibran
INTRODUCTION
All three of the remarkable individuals above were renowned for their excellence as poets. But Longfellow did not say that poetry is the universal language of mankind. Likewise Angelou did not say poetry was her refuge, nor did Gibran say that poetry was the language of the spirit.
All three of these gifted communicators shared the opinion that music held special power – the power to connect us, the power to speak to us in the deep secret places, the power to touch our very essence.
And it’s not just poets! Philosophers, politicians, scientists, doctors, professors, therapists, pastors, theologians, actors, and of course lyricists, singers, and musicians have all remarked about the extraordinary powers of music.
In this day and age there seem to be very few concepts upon which we can all agree. I’d like to suggest that there are two important, timeless realities upon which we can all agree.
First is that all human beings have a deep primal desire to know that we are not alone.
Whether by a community, by one or two key people in our lives, or by our Creator we need to feel known, understood, and valued.
Second is that music has the unique ability to speak to us in a way that connects us to our deepest emotions, to express the inexpressible. In so doing it connects us to that which is most human within us and thereby to one another.
In this piece I would like to share what I have learned about the power of music – and more specifically the power of a song – to be an agent of life changing healing for those dealing with issues of trauma, grief, and other disruptive major life events.
Because you see, music really is for the soul.