Lucky me just landed from a song gathering that sung my soul back into believing. Game on! Mostly I was too enraptured to remember to reach for a lens; here are a few quick glimpses of the goodness.
From the Village Fire website: “How do we go beyond sustainability and learn to thrive again? How do we entertain, inspire, create? How do we make connection with each other without elaborate technology, using simply the inner resources we were born with? We raise our voices together in songs that celebrate love, diversity, power, the rhythms of the year, and the circle of life. We sing songs for times when comfort is needed, and songs that remind us of our ancestors. We sing songs to give us courage in our work to re-wild the world. We sing songs from home and songs from afar. We sing silly songs and songs that invite dancing, songs that you can take home and sing the rest of your life. By the circular, non-hierarchical, harmonious intertwining of our voices we bring light to the world.”
I couldn’t sit close enough to the feet of special guest song-leader, the gentle giant Laurence Cole. Teacher, teach me! Loving that eureka that happens when you meet someone who you want to grow up to be just like. He says: “Part of my mission is to re-acquaint people with their birthright and natural ability to make beautiful and meaningful sound together. Most of the songs I’ve written are short, easy to learn, chant-like songs with several layers that fit over and around each other in interesting and pleasurable rhythmic and harmonic challenges that make them fun to sing. Group singing is one of the most ancient and primal ‘technologies of belonging’ that we humans have been using since our earliest times, possibly before speech itself. When we make joyous and passionate song together, it nourishes our souls and offers an enlivening gift back to the natural world that made us and gives us our sustenance and our very being. When such an exchange is genuinely made, and the song finds its natural ending, often there is a sweet, lively silence in which we simply stand and hold the ‘enchantment,’ the sense of deep and genuine communion.”
More, please. Stay tuned. This is a door I want to walk through and through.