Music created and performed with intention can touch the heart and sooth the soul of the grieving.
Perhaps it is only music that, played with healing intention, can reach deep inside and touch emotions that sometimes you don't even realize are there.
Once touched, the tears may come, along with yearning and heartache, and at first you can feel as if they will never stop. Once the music stops, you realize you are safe and seemingly cleansed and peaceful.
The following music video is a song written and performed in grief, by Scott Niolet, who lost his home in Pass Christian, Mississippi to Hurricane Katrina on the morning of Monday, August 29th, 2005. The video is filmed in Pass Christian and is called "Monday Afternoon Rain."
Music heals, and so do thoughts and prayers. Let's not forget the people of the Louisiana backwaters (where in some places only water remains with no sign of land where homes once stood) and how, believe it or not, relatively lucky New Orleans was. Smaller communities such as Venice, Grand Isle, Boothville, Buras, Waveland, and Bay Saint Louis were completely destroyed.
We think of New Orleans when we think of jazz music full of joy, and we also think of Hurricane Katrina. In this city called "The Big Easy", the levy broke and engulfed so many lives in deep treacherous waters, and caused so much pain and suffering to those unable to flee.
But we forget that in Mississippi the hurricane actually made first landfall and the residents felt the full impact of the high winds, torrential rains, and 30-foot tidal surge. In Scott Niolet's home town, 100% of all business properties were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods vanished, with many residents becoming lost in their own neighborhoods with nothing left but splintered trees, piles of rubble and slabs where lovely homes once stood.
Hurricane Katrina decimated every mile of Mississippi's inland coastline. Hundreds were killed, more than a hundred thousand were left homeless and more than one million were affected by the storm in Mississippi alone. Unlike New Orleans, a city almost entirely below sea level and devastated by levy breaks, towns and cities along Mississippi's coastline boasted the highest points along the entire Caribbean coast.
Flood insurance was not something you bravely and foolishly did without; floods were simply unheard of. In an area that had experienced the destruction of Hurricane Camille, the wrath of Katrina was still unimaginable.
Charming towns and cities, full of incredible beauty, history and vibrant life, gone. Lush foliage surrounding exquisite Southern homes, resorts, apartments, condominiums, and historical sites, gone.
Scenic Drive was a step back in time. This elevated street in Pass Christian, lined with ancient oaks, beautiful homes, gardens and waterfront views, had history. Many homes were built before the Civil War; others dated from the turn of the 20th century. Pass Christian was known after the war as the loveliest of Southern resort towns. All these beautiful homes on Scenic Drive, both big and small, became the stuff of home and architectural magazines. Scenic Drive was one of three sites in the United States designated as a national historic street. Now, devastated.
Reported the National Trust for Historic Preservation before Hurricane Katrina: "Scenic Drive remains the largest architecturally intact major 19th century resort area in the South and one of only a few... that have managed to retain most of their original character."
It is important to remember in our thoughts, prayers and music all of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by Hurricane Katrina. And to remember, like one sign spray painted on a destroyed home, "don't let Katrina steal your joy".
