This past week I posted a ukulele tutorial for Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. While I was creating this tutorial I started to notice so many connections with the song meaning and the location I chose to film.

If you haven’t already heard his version of this beautiful song I recommend that you listen to it right away. You can feel his soul and emotion come out in the song and melody. His voice is so beautiful and effortless. Though the tone may sound happy and uplifting, its lyrics are bitter sweet.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow, blue birds fly

And the dreams that you dare to… why oh why, can’t I.”

To me this song is about endings leading to new beginnings. It’s about life after death, whether that be in heaven, or looking back kindly at one’s life and being at peace. The music video for this song includes imagery from his funeral where thousands gathered on the beach to spread his ashes into the Pacific Ocean.

After destruction there are always survivors. The earth is resilient and ready to spring back to life! After watching the effects of these two catastrophic hurricanes on my island home, I see much hope for the future. Knowing that more storms like this will occur more regularly due to climate change, many people are considering rebuilding with renewable energy. People are also rebuilding stronger, so that future storms will not create so much waste and destruction. Is this future place, with no fossil fuels, resilient people and stronger structures, “Somewhere over the rainbow?” Even after a rainy storm the sun shines out and a rainbow appears!

The colorful backdrop in my version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is created from reclaimed and painted wood pieces from Magens Bay. Magens is nicknamed the heart-shaped beach, in part because of its shape and also because it is the heart of St. Thomas tourism and during the season thousands of visitors enjoy our white sand and warm blue waters. After the storm the once beautiful palms lining the shore looked like limp and broken toothpicks. The sand was completely gone from the storm surge. And the buildings such as the restaurant and bathrooms were blown away. It was heart breaking.

In the next few weeks the sand slowly began coming back, then locals organized beach clean-ups to remove some of the debris from the beach. Finally Royal Caribbean Cruise invested in rejuvenating the beach and planted over 100 palms and sea grape trees.

Visiting there after all this made me so happy, I have lived 2 minutes from this beach my whole life and I’m so glad that so many people care about it as much as I do! I love that the art piece uses the ruined wood from all the destroyed buildings on the beach and turned it into a rainbow of color and hope. — like ourselves, trying to rebuild after a huge change and loss. We have to learn to use what we have and know it will never be exactly the same. With a positive outlook and a splash of color we can reclaim our space.

So I hope you find your “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” story this week. A moment where you turned a gloomy day into something colorful and full of hope!