Voice as a Spiritual Path

March 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Shine your light!

I just finished the last chapter of what is known as a Shitty First Draft-SFD 2.0. I finished SFD 1.0 about four years ago and came to a screeching halt. I stalled around with back spasms and resistance for a couple of years until New Year’s 2017. I decided I either had to write the book or not write the book, but not wallow in the emotional muck in between. I felt like the book would not let me go. I decided to finish writing it. The book is about voice as a spiritual path.

I found a writing partner, Pam Clark. We got together every week. I took a residential class on how to write a book with Mary Carroll Moore. I continued working with Mary through two online classes, which I’d never done before. I played with stickies on charts, imagined scenes, sequence, and structure, all the while writing something every day.

One day, Pam and I decided to ask a question of our inner guide. I watched as I wrote ten keys to voice as a spiritual path. I read them aloud to Pam. Pam said, “Oh my God, there’s your book.” Here was my structure.

Mary agreed to work with me as an editor when I finished my next draft. We set a date. I made a schedule. I began arranging my day around writing. Life got busy, as it always does. The date got pushed back to March 1, which is Friday. I’ve done it.

I have struggled, resisted, held back, learned, grown, and flowed in this process for a decade. I had made the desire and task of writing a book Mt. Everest. Somehow, in the last six months of actually writing this draft, the mountain faded completely into the nothing it always was. I did not release all my negative self-judgments and doubts. Plenty of mornings, I woke up irritated and anxious. I just kept writing. If nothing else came, I wrote about being irritated and anxious. With each chapter I completed, my negative self-judgments released me.

There are eleven chapters. As I was finishing the tenth chapter, my thighs began to ache in a way they hadn’t done in years. Paul was in the process of getting a new job. We were both stressed by that. I had two concerts coming up, music to memorize, music to plan and record for my two choral groups. I got a cold. That whole week, my legs ached all night. One morning, it felt like I had hiked up my mountain all night. It hurt to bend down when I fed Scuppers. The last time my legs had gripped and ached this hard was the summer of Laura’s dying. My friend Laura’s death and what I learned with her were the impetus to write a book in the first place. SFD 1.0 was that story.

I finished the tenth chapter despite my body’s efforts to hold me back. I thought, “I’m almost done. Shouldn’t this feel momentous or ecstatic? Have I changed?”

I wrote the final chapter the same way I wrote the others, plodding along, writing what came to me, piecing together a collage of observations and stories. My legs stopped hurting overnight. I made my school vacation week a writer’s retreat. Pam came over and we spent a day writing together. Today, I got up eager to write, edit, polish, play, and discover what the next step will be. This morning, it is this blog.

I cleaned up SFD 2.0 and sent it to Mary by email on March 1. I met my deadline. I also mailed her a hard copy. The next phase of polishing and refining begins. I can’t wait. In the meantime, I am going to write some poems. Here’s one from my last chapter.

 

Behind walls

of our own devising,

shoji screens of rules

we eat as real,

lies permission

to taste the world

to say yes

and no

to reflect our beauty

power

love

to grace life

with our imperfect touch

to shimmer

radiant as the gods

we are.

 

As always, your thoughts and comments are very welcome. Happy snow.

Peggo

 

 

Filed Under: life lessons, Listeniing, writing

10 Keys to Voice as a Spiritual Path

June 26, 2018 by 4 Comments

Assisi – Life beckons

Dear friends,

It’s been awhile since I’ve written. I am immersed in writing my book this summer. I want to share with you some key thoughts about voice. In an effort to quiet my overactive left-brain, I have been meditating before writing, connecting to that deeper connection to Source. People call it by a variety of names – highest Self, inner guides, God. This week, I asked for guidance about what my book is about. This was the answer. If you have any thoughts, questions, or observations, I would love to hear them.

 

The ten keys to voice as a spiritual path are:

1- Trust – Trust in your inner voice, your intuition, (which comes from the 15th century word “intuicion,” meaning “insight, direct or immediate cognition, and spiritual perception.”) Trust your soul voice. Trust universal timing.

2- Clarity – a cloudy voice is uncertain. A clear tone is free and connected to your inner channel, to your power.

3- Power – the power of voice is in the sound connected through the breath to the core, to your soul. Empowerment comes when that channel is open, the energy free-flowing, all cells focused on the wavelengths and vibrations of the voice, giving voice to the soul of who you are. Fear, negativity, conditioning, anxiety, even concern get in the way, clogging the channel like arteriosclerosis, when fats build up in arteries, narrowing the passage for the blood, your life flow. Regular clearing is required – both bodily and vocally.

The vocal channel IS the energy channel. Clear one and you automatically clear the other. When the energy channel is cleared, the voice drops into its inherent vibration, the unique soul print for each soul, each person. You can hear the difference. When the voice channel is cleared, the sound is buoyed by the free-flowing energy, infusing the voice with the uniqueness of you – your beliefs, thoughts, loves, passions, and experience.

4- Truth – The voice cannot lie. Yes, there are people who have perfected the art of hiding. But even pathological liars believe what they say once they say it. It is not connected to the soul. You can hear the difference. It is fundamentally defensive – thin and superficial or deep and aggressive. But it is not clear and free-flowing.

The truth of life is what we are here for, the truth of experience in order to know love.

5- Love – Ultimately love is what we want flowing out our mouths – praise of God in all the flavors of the universe – every God, Goddess and religion, the earth, the environment, every person, every star, every circumstance, every moment. A free-flowing voice carries love on its vibration – out to bless the listener and the world. Even singing or speaking about dark things, the core of the sound can vibrate with the soul’s love. This gives the ears that hear a blanket of peace, a salve for difficult emotions and circumstances. Hearing love opens the heart. We can rest knowing we are connected.

6- Connection – Sound does not need to be audible to be heard. We hear each other in the ether. We feel each other in the energy field. Because life looks like separation, we crave connection. Separation is an illusion. We are really all connected. You know this, but don’t always see it. Voice can bridge your forgetfulness, the veil of separation, to the whole that you are. Voice reaches out by word, note, touch and love – to share this human experience.

Songweavers, my large community women’s chorus, is an example of that. Singing together creates the connection, amplifying what is already present. People sing in Songweavers for the experience of connection. They feel less alone. They let the sound wrap around them, flow through them and buoy them up in the whole cosmos of sound.

7- Gratitude – The key to everything in life is gratitude. Gratitude is both giving and receiving, the full circle. Gratitude for each moment, each event, and each person allows us to expand into the present and not miss this precious, finite life.

8- Listen – Voice teaches us to listen, not just to the surface – the words and the notes, but to the deeper and deeper layers of truth to emotions, singular and overlapping, to the wider context of an experience, to hidden beliefs, secret desires, unconscious conditioning, all the way in to God, to the holy being you are. The voice is the barometer and soul print of each holy being. Listening deeply allows us to be who we are and know our connection to each other, We are one. Listening confirms this truth.

9- Soul – The soul guides this embodied life. The voice allows us to hear what the soul is trying to say. Silent, spoken, sung, painted, crafted, farmed, the soul voice manifests itself in all creation. Revel in its guidance and beauty.

10- God – Do not get trapped by your conditioning about the word God. You could say Spirit, but that waters it down. God is the We in all of us. God is the we and the one in We are one. You cannot see God, but you know the presence of an all loving energy. Do not confuse this loving energy with the sandbox of life’s experiences. All options are open to you so you have the gift of a wide open field in which to play. And learn. And grow and expand into your highest nature, which is God.

Don’t bother getting too hung up on whatever religious overlay you have for God. Follow your voice. Voice is the vibration of your connection to God. The soul voice sifts you down to your holiest vibration. That purity of tone is God, the God around you, within you and that is you. Just hum and you will find it. Silent or aloud, it doesn’t matter. Just hum. The door you think is between you and God will dissolve, your fundamental unity revealed. Breathe. Hum. Bask in all that is holy.

Filed Under: life lessons, Listeniing, thoughts on voice

Winter Sing

January 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Winter Sing

“Oh, this looks lovely.”

Becky in our empty room

I smiled, anticipating 70 women filling the two concentric circles of chairs. Sun angled across the floor from the tall windows lining both sides of the room. Dust danced in the beams like the vibrations of song soon to come. I stood in the center of the circle for a moment and breathed in the empty space.
Women began to arrive, bustling about setting up coffee and hot water, tables for snacks, finding their seat. The room began to fill with the spirited pitch of women happy to see each other – a sonic collage of eager greetings, handling of details, and cheerful laughter, the tones rising and falling, the volume lifting as the clock ticked toward 10:00.
“Jamba, jambo sana,” I began to sing. The women sang it back to me. “Jamba, jumbo santa.” I continued, “Habari, tuwa karibisha,” My heart kicks up a bit when a room full of women answers me back in song. Back and forth, call and response, we learned this song from the Congo. It is a song that villagers sing to welcome visitors. I had learned it from three of my singers, who are New Americans originally from the Congo. The words mean, “Hi/hello many times, How are you? I am fine. In our country, there is no problem.” A fitting way to start the Winter Sing, a day for women from three women’s choruses; my chorus – Songweavers, Animaterra, from Keene, and Brattleboro Women’s Chorus, to sing together.
Animaterra and Brattleboro Women’s Chorus are directed by Becky Graber. Becky and I wanted to have fun sharing songs and build relationships between our singers. The day became so much more than that.
We began the morning with warming up the body. “I’m alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic,’ a children’s song with hand and arm gestures that reverse at the end causing confusion and chuckling. Barriers between strangers began to dissolve in communal fumbling and play. We graduated to a simple part song, Together in Song by Sue Ribaudo. Each part learned one line.
“Bring on the voices, bring on the voices, bring on the voices together in song.
My voice and your voice, bring more voices together in song.
Hearts are together and minds are together and we are together, together in song.
Singing in harmony sing, sing, together in song.”
By the end, we are all singing together in song.
As the morning went on, the sound began to work its subterranean magic. Faces smiled. Bodies relaxed. Feet tapped. Just before lunch, Becky taught Legacy by Terry Garthwaite.

Winter Sing from the loft

“I will lay down the burdens of my mother, and carry on the legacy of love.
If I stumble and fall, help me up, one and all. And we will carry on with love.”
I stood in the back watching women wipe their eyes, wiping my own eyes. At lunch, women    mingled from different choruses. For our last song, written by Kate Munger, we sang,
“What light do you shine in the world?
What gift do you give every day?
What comes from your heart and becomes your life’s art?
What light do you shine in the world?”
We sang 23 songs over the course of the day. Some were silly, some were sweet or upbeat. Some were direct, like songs for freedom and songs of protest. Some asked questions. Some offered guidance. Some were prayers and songs of gratitude. None of the songs were about perfection. Rather, the singing opened us all up to a sharing of personal emotions through communal vibration. With each note, in each moment, each now. At 10:00am, we were 70 individual women singing. By mid-morning, individuals had become one indivisible body of sound. It didn’t matter what kind of song it was. At some point, each woman dropped away entirely, transformed through sound into infinite vibration – more tears, more opening, more heart, more connection – sublime.
This is why I sing. Because singing is audible, visceral connection. What I most crave is the tangible experience of real connection- to myself, to others, to Spirit, and to the unity that we all are. In the ringing stillness after a song, I patted my hand over my heart, acknowledging our profound connection.

 

Filed Under: awareness, Listeniing, singing, Songweavers, sound, the power of vibration

Sliding into Tyranny

January 3, 2018 by 5 Comments

January 3, 2018

We are on a slide to tyranny with the prime narcissist and his advisors in the White House. They are preying on our fears in order to take control and consolidate power. We need to face our fears and choose to engage.
Fear drives contraction – contraction of vision, understanding, perspective, choices and opportunity. A narrow vision with clear guard-rules can feel preferable to the terror of fear. We feel safer when fear is contained. But all human life, all life on this planet and in the universe is based on expansion.
The brilliance of this time is how clearly we can see the consequences of choosing fear. With the current President, we have a narrowing of opportunity to those with wealth and power, a move to limit speech, access to information and science, an effort to control the independent Justice department, and a calculated strategy to pit “us” against “them.” Creating enemies is a standard fear-enhancing tactic on the road to tyranny. “Us” are white men, particularly with money and power, against the poor, disadvantaged, immigrants, women and all people of color.
Fear narrows. Fighting fear only entrenches the narrow beliefs and anxieties of fear. Instead, try this. Sit with fear, your own fear, and breathe. Hold its hand. Do not fight. Acknowledge it. Accepting that you have this fear does not mean that the fear is real. Fear is part of being human. Some fears help to keep us alive. If your house is on fire, get your children and get out. But many fears are amplified by imagination and worry. Sit with fear to discern its true purpose. Is this fear based on reality or imagination?
Some fears beg for attention. The fear of tyranny is based on a growing list of facts. While the President lies with impunity, he has discredited the free press as fake media, calling journalists “enemies of the people,” which is a quote from Joseph Stalin. He has erased information from a number of federal websites, including health care and the environment. He has directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop using a long list of words, including fetus, diversity, vulnerable, transgender, and science. He continually bashes the FBI and the intelligence services as they investigate Russia’s interference with last year’s election. The actions of the President and his aids have been to systematically destroy our trust in politicians who have sworn to serve us, the federal government and the constitution.
Fear can be paralyzing. Respond to the fear of tyranny by choosing expansion. Take action. Choose movement that widens, action that includes, diversifies, and opens. Meditate. Write a letter. Write your friends. Speak up. Run for office. Help others run for office. Protest repressive laws. Start a movement. Time’s 2017 Person of the Year is the Silence Breakers, the women who launched a movement by speaking up about their personal experiences with sexual harassment and abuse. #MeToo swept through the nation and 85 other countries with millions of women publicly sharing their stories. Working together is what helps to shape and change our world. Pick one thing you are interested in and find a way to help.
I am using music to speak up. In the fall, Songweavers focused its outreach efforts on singing for New Americans and inviting them to sing with us. The theme of our 2018 concert is ‘We are the World.’ We are singing songs that amplify the following quote from Maya Angelou, “We are more alike, my friend, than we are unalike.” This new year, I am also going to get more active with Kent St. Coalition, the Concord grass-roots resistance movement that has grown into an effective voice for democratic values. At their first meeting of 2018, I am going to teach people a song written by Melanie DeMore. Written the day after Trump got elected, these simple words are as vital today as they were a year ago.
You gotta put one foot in front of the other and lead with love.
Put one foot in front of the other and lead with love.
I know you’re scared, and I’m scared too.
But here I am right next to you.
In 2018, let’s face fear and lead with love.

Filed Under: thoughts on voice

Recording and Release

October 23, 2017 by 1 Comment

The first time I recorded a set of songs for my composer friend Thomas Oboe Lee, I got

Calvin and I at WGBH Studios in Boston

back spasms. Tom came up for a rehearsal on a Sunday afternoon. With my friend and fabulous accompanist Calvin Herst on piano, we worked through each song clarifying notes, rhythms and articulations. The set is called “Love Songs.” They are lovely, hard and exacting.

Tom said, “You guys both sound great.” Calvin and I exhaled with relief.

Over dinner, Calvin asked Tom, “ Do you get to hear your music live very much?”

Tom chuckled. “No. As I’ve gotten older, I want the music to be played the way I wrote it and that hardly every happens. So now I am recording all my music, one piece at a time, so I can hear performances that are nearly perfect.”

Calvin and I looked at each other. Tom laughed. “But you guys are great. No need to worry. Besides, we’ll record a few pages at a time and then the engineer, who is a whizz at splicing, sticks the best bits together. Seamless. Easy.”

Two days later I was laid flat with back spasms. There was my body’s familiar response to the pressure of perfection. I was mad. I thought I had gotten over my back spasm time. I took all my remedies, laid on a heating pad, and saw my energy healer, who helped guide my body back to balance. The day of the recording, I woke exhausted, but pain-free.

Calvin and I drove to WGBH studios in Boston. We walked in to the studio where the Boston Symphony records. It was the biggest studio I had ever seen, bigger than my house, with a ceiling at least three stories high, a wooden floor, wooden slats at various angles on all the walls and mostly empty, except for a nine foot Steinway and some microphones arranged on an oriental rug in the middle of the room.

Thomas Oboe Lee going over music with Calvin

Our footsteps clipped through the space like percussion. I sang a few notes to test the acoustics. The sound soared clear and pure. Calvin fingered the keys – divine! We were in heaven. While the engineer finished setting up, I walked around the studio noodling notes in the cavernous space, relishing the fluid tones. Calvin trailed scales up and down the keyboard. When I was warmed up, I lay my music in single sheets over two music stands so we wouldn’t have any noise turning pages. I took my shoes off so I could feel the floor with my bare feet. I looked at Calvin. Ready? Ready. We began.

“This face so fair first bent mine eye…” Calvin and I dropped into our groove. Without the need to sing and play every note perfectly for the whole song, we were free to focus on the notes of the moment. We’d finish a section, pause, and record it again two or three times, fix particular spots Tom or we had heard, then move on to the next section. Eventually, Tom would say, “That’s great. I think we’ve got it.”

There is a delicate balance between delight in the music we are making, trusting technique to support the sound, letting go into the flow of beauty and skill, singing with mindful concentration, and expressing the music with heart. The tight rope of recording demands absolute focus in each moment, like meditation. It was thrilling and fun. We finished at 5:30pm and crawled our way through rush hour traffic, gabbing the whole way home.

This month, Calvin and I recorded a second set of Tom’s songs called “Jack and the Blues,” on poems by Jack Kerouac. My back and shoulders began to hurt the week before. I went for an energy session to release any accumulated tension. I was determined to record easily and with joy – spasm free.

We arrived early with time to warm up and prepare. Ten minutes before our scheduled start time, the piano tuner showed up. He tweeked and tuned for 45 minutes. Tom had booked two hours. We had 5 songs to record. Time was ticking.

Finally we began.

Calvin and I recording.

“Mexico City Bop, I got the huck bop, I got the floogle mock, I got the thiri, chiribim, bitchy bitchy bitchy batch batch, chipperly bop, noise like that.”

The first two songs were very demanding – pitch, rhythms, getting our timing precisely together. On one tricky phrase, I had to watch Calvin’s hands so I could sing the words exactly when he played the chords. Tom said, “Good. Let’s move on.”

The melody of the second song has as a motif large interval jumps, particularly on the last word of the phrase. The last word or syllable frequently jumped up by a seventh, an octave or a ninth. Tom said, “Could you sing the last high notes softer?’

I knew what he meant, but it was harder that way. I tried it and heard my voice sing soft, lilting high notes. One take. Trust your technique, I thought.

On one phrase, Tom said, “Let’s do that page again. The high F is too flat.” I penciled an upward arrow over the note and sang it again.

“It’s too sharp. It should be flatter.” I sang it again. And again. I could no longer hear the problem. I said to Calvin, “I’m just going to sing it the way I want to and we’ll see.”

“Perfect,” said Tom, “let’s move on.”

Unlike the spring recording session, this session was tense and intense, but I didn’t realize why until the end. Between takes, I jiggled my legs, rotated my shoulders, fluttered my wings, flopped upside down breathing in to make space, breathing out to let go. Every few pages, I wrote the word JOY on the top of my music. It made me smile and relax, remembering my true purpose.

We finished in 90 minutes, only 15 minutes overtime. It was the time crunch that created this atmosphere of pressure. I could feel my insides vibrating from the adrenaline kicking in to help us do a good job, and also the excitement of recording, of playing well, of delivering songs that were jazzy, fun, exacting and meaningful. Calvin and I were in this music bubble together and we nailed it.

I shook my hands vigorously, opened my jaw as wide as it would go, stuck my tongue out and sighed. I’d done it. Stayed present. Focused. Flexible. We’d done it. Played with skill. Beauty. Breath. We were in sync musically and very happy we could deliver under pressure.

The big milestone for me was that I was able to do all of that without creating more than the usual tension in my body – no aches, no throbs, no spasms, just ordinary tension that melted away when we were done. A turning point. How thrilling!

 

Filed Under: awareness, life lessons, Listeniing, performance

Begin Again

September 18, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Return, begin again – heart

opening, closing –

right now

give yourself to love.

 

 

Right now, I am giving myself to my book. I have been working on a book since my friend, Laura, died of cancer nine years ago. She once said to me, “This writing is your cancer; this breaking down of all structures, nothing left to hide behind, no pretend, only love.” I am giving myself to the process, to learning, to not knowing, to growth, expansion, fear, struggle, imagination, possibility, creativity, play, joy. This challenge is calling me to a new relationship with myself, one in which:

I can

I am able

I express what I need to say

I sing

I let go

I give myself to love, love of myself and my inner call

I answer this call because it won’t let me go

I trust its unknown value

I seek not knowing

I hold my hand and jump.

 

This process might be like hopscotch; only the squares go out the driveway, down the road, and away around unseen corners. All I need do is jump from one box to the next – one jump at a time.

“Fear is not your friend,” Carolyn Myss said recently to a friend of mine who has cancer. Fear is not my friend, either. The last years of writing- and not writing- this book have been a journey with fear. Fear has been tenacious and steady, my seeker of comfort, my defender against change, my test of truth – but not my friend.

Today, I return. I begin again.

“Begin again” is a meditation mantra – an invitation to sit down, relax, breathe and open to what is before me right now. What’s before me right now is a deep desire to sing with the birds outside my window, to chirp with the crickets in the woodpile, to trust the call, trust myself, trust my voice to expand beyond the self-imposed limitations of my fears, and to open to life while I’m alive.

This is not just a cliché etched on clay tiles and hung on my wall. ‘Follow Your Heart,’ it says with a dragonfly hovering nearby. The message is deeper than a decoration. When I begin again, I can hear the call more clearly. Fear fades. The heart is the channel of light, the inter-spirit connector. The password is: loveopens.

 

As part of the process of writing again, I want to share some of my thoughts as they evolve. Please feel free to send me your comments or questions.

Filed Under: healing, life lessons, meditation, singing, Speaking UP, writing

The Way of the Voice

August 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment

August, 2017

 

I spent a week at the Madeleine Island School of the Arts in late July, writing with Mary Carroll Moore. Madeleine Island is in Lake Superior. I flew to Duluth, Minnesota, drove to Bayfield, Wisconsin, took a ferry to Madeleine Island, where I was picked up and driven to the school. I didn’t drive again for a week. It was heaven. Mary is an inspiring writing teacher who happens to live in New Hampshire. The most valuable thing I learned during the week is that I actually have the threads for an interesting book. I am writing a book about voice, about how we find our voice and how voice can become a spiritual path.

 

As I tease out my ideas and experiences with voice, I am going to share some of my writing with you in this blog. I would be very happy to receive your comments, questions and feedback. I begin with a 19 syllable poem I wrote while at the writing retreat.

 

 

I sing because I can. I

a monarch perched on my finger waiting to fly

may wander away,

but I

always come back home.

 

 

 

The Way of the Voice

out of the dark

into the dark

The dark of the black universe

of no-thing, no-time, no-body, no-thought, no-voice.

Isn’t it beautiful here

all shimmer and sparkle

From here you can do anything

From here you can be anything

breathe

space

breathe space

inside

space outside the illusion of skin

Breathe space into every cell, atom and molecule

Breathe space between every particle

Feel the vibration

Feel the vibratory nature of your skin,

of the atoms of these fingers “holding”

the atoms of this purple pen

Merge

Weave

Entwine

My hand on the paper

Vibrating, intermingling

Space

Breath

Breathe breath

Breathe space

Breathe love

fill the space

fill all space

fill all vibration

The Doctrine of Vibration

13th c Kashmir

We are all vibrating form emanating from the vibrational field

of ultimate consciousness –

Pure consciousness

Pure love

Unconditional

Without limit

Wide open

Space before me

Space behind

Space above me

Space below

Space within

Breathing out

Infinite

The Way of the Voice

Is a way in

to the infinite.

Filed Under: Breath, Listeniing, singing, sound, Way of the Voice

Voice will empower the world

July 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment

July, 10, 2017

Sing your song

As we each empower our own voice,

Voice will empower the world.

Listen

Pay attention

Breathe

Speak

Proclaim

Soar

Seek

Authenticity

Truth transformed by heart

Make waves with your one wild voice

Collaborate

Commune

Chant the web of connection.

 

Voice is the path in.

Sing the spirit calling.

Filed Under: awareness, life lessons, singing, sound

19 Syllable Happiness

June 7, 2017 by 2 Comments

June 7, 2017

The sun has returned after what seems like days and days of cool, rainy weather. Summer is finally in the air.

In this blog, I am going to share some poems that I have written in the last few weeks. Many are inspired by the ocean in Maine. I spent my birthday sitting on the wet rocks at the very tip of Seapoint Beach.

I learned about this form of poetry from my cousin friend, Tracey, who first inspired me to write when I was ten years old. On my annual February visit to Hawaii, where Tracey lives, we played around with this structure. I find myself writing these little poems all the time – at the beach, after meditation, looking out the window. I love how simple and spare they are.

These are 19 syllable poems in four lines, a kind of elongated Haiku. Line 1 – 7 syllables, Line 2 – 5 syllables, Line 3 – 2 syllables (or 1), Line 4 – 5 (or 6).

Since this is play, if I need 20 syllables, I do. Or sometimes I let the 19 syllables spin me where else they want to go. I have found it very settling, therapeutic and just fun. Try some yourself.

 

from Hawaii:

 

I walk alone pondering

Pacific Ocean on a gray day in Hilo, Hawaii

poems and pleasure,

streams

sing their way to the sea.

 

~

 

Which way does the weather go?

from above? from the sea?

or

from my heart, tangled and free?

 

 

from my birthday:

on my birthday – May 12

Misty rocks rise through my bones,

water within and

without –

the ocean calls me.

 

after meditation:

 

Stand on the sill of thinking.

Jump out the window,

roll, lay

down and watch the sky.

by the ocean:

 

Sitting on granite, symphonic

Seapoint Beach

sea on three sides –

I breathe

sweet smelling lightness.

 

~

 

I don’t need a clock. I have

the wind in my hair,

the waves,

the first wisps of clouds.

 

 

 

Filed Under: awareness, Breath, life lessons, Listeniing, meditation, nature, sound

Grace Comes In

April 14, 2017 by Leave a Comment

“This is what I want everyone to experience at the end of my concert is everyone has this sense of

Songweavers happy singing

rejoicing. I want them to have this sense of real, real joy from the depths of their being. Because I think when you are taken to that place, then you open up a place where grace can come in.”

~Bobby McFerrin

 

Songweavers had our first concert last Sunday and are getting ready for our second concert on April 22 in Concord. In preparation, I have been thinking about grace, how music takes us beyond our linear brain into a place of unexpected spaciousness. That spaciousness is like the ever-widening rings on a lake. As singers, we release a song into the air, the rings of sound washing through the room and everyone in it. The sound resonates through our bodies, literally creating added space between the molecules and cells, loosening constriction, relaxing muscles, opening the breath.

 

To close today’s rehearsal, we sang “May You Dwell in the Heart,” the final song of our program. It is a Buddhist blessing. “May you dwell in the heart./ May you be filled with kindness. /May you be well./ May you be at peace.” We start with the melody, then the high part floats over the top. The bottom part enters and we finally hear the ground of the chord. As the harmony unfolds, it feels like double doors open in the center of my chest. I can feel the waves of energy expand out those doors, flowing beyond myself. A song of simple, but beautiful words and uncomplicated harmony transcends space and time. Our hearts open and we merge into one pulsing, resonant being. “May you dwell in peace.” As the last note fades, there are many women wiping away tears, including me. Grace has come in. We have been moved from the depths of our being.

 

This experience of joy, as McFerrin calls it, expands throughout the body on vibration, beyond bones, mind and form. The right and left hemispheres of the brain merge. The barriers of individuality melt. In the spaciousness of joy, “grace can come in.”

 

Join us next Saturday, April 22 at 5:00pm at South Congregational Church at 27 Pleasant St. in Concord. For tickets, call Concord Community Music School at 603-228-1196 or go to ccmusicschool.org.

Filed Under: awareness, healing, Listeniing, performance, prayer, Songweavers
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