Musical Prayer

Tonight I did a short sound journey at the World Citizens Cafe in Framingham honoring Earth Day and offering musical prayer to Mother Earth. It was one of those events where I was asked to do it knowing I would be giving a five to ten minute sound offering and traveling an hour and a half to do so and knowing all the while that I wouldn't be making any money but that it would be well worth my while in every way. And so it was.

I only brought a handful of instruments with me but I chose instruments from as many parts of the world that I could. On their Facebook page the description for the World Citizens Cafe is as follows: "A place to relax and share our multicultural heritage. Discover the cultural differences that distinguish us and the commonalities that bind us. Stories from worldwide cultures, music,
tastes of international foods, lively conversation and of laughter ! Free and open to all." So, my guiding thoughts were to choose instruments that were global and the intentionality of a healing prayer for the Mother. I brought four Tibetan singing bowls, a Paiste gong made in Switzerland, a wind gong made in China, a condor feather flute made by a Peruvian shaman, an antique transverse flute made in London, a Native American flute, an instrumental tamboura made in India, a clay pot flute made by me, a rattle given to me by a Canadian shaman (which I think was made in the Amazon), a crystal bowl made in the United States and a didgeridoo from Australia. 

It was such a lovely evening... a beautiful group of people, and everyone seemed to love the sound journey. It was wonderful to see how deep and how far people were able to travel with the sound in spite of it being so short. I am reminded that time really has no bearing on the experience because the effect of sound is instantaneous and transcendent.