Visioning With Sound

Today I was inspired to create a workshop to usher in the new year- Sacred Sound & Visions for New Year. It is completely last minute. Today is Tuesday. The workshop is Saturday. The 11th hour, as they say... but it was one of those ideas that grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let me go. In my experience those are the ones that generally manifest the most magnificently! (You will find a description of the workshop and the link to sign up if you click here.)

The vision that came to me around the workshop is to begin by offering a healing sound meditation- a circle of sacred sound if you will. That will be the vehicle for people to journey and see what arises in their consciousness- a vision quest of sorts. Sound is the carrier wave for intention. That is why it has been used in healing ceremonies and rituals for so many thousands of years.

Once the intentions have been set the participants will create vision boards to affirm and reinforce their intentions, putting into concrete form images that represent, ultimately, not just what they want or where they would like to travel or the new car of their dreams, but how they want to feel.

One of my favorite passages in A Course in Miracles comes under the heading "Setting the Goal" in Chapter 17. One of the things I love most about it is the point that in all things the ultimate goal should be truth.

"The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as a means to make it happen. You will therefore make every effort to overlook what interferes with the accomplishment of your objective, and concentrate on everything that helps you meet it. It is quite noticeable that this approach has brought you closer to the Holy Spirit's sorting out of truth and falsity. The true becomes what can be used to meet the goal. The false becomes the useless from this point of view. The situation now has meaning, but only because the goal has made it meaningful.

⁵ "The goal of truth has further practical advantages. If the situation is used for truth and sanity, its outcome must be peace. And this is quite apart from what the outcome is. If peace is the condition of truth and sanity, and cannot be without them, where peace is they must be. Truth comes of itself. If you experience peace, it is because the truth has come to you and you will see the outcome truly, for deception cannot prevail against you. You will recognize the outcome because you are at peace. Here again you see the opposite of the ego's way of looking, for the ego believes the situation brings the experience. The Holy Spirit knows that the situation is as the goal determines it, and is experienced according to the goal."

Beyond the Solstice

How the time flies! Great sound healing event at Women & Infants Hospital last Monday on the heels of a Solstice Celebration in Cumberland at the Bija Institute. Beautiful space, good turnout, great people. The acoustics were amazing in the very center of the yurt!

The Sound Journey at Women & Infants was photographed and filmed by the Providence Journal as part of a piece they are doing on Sound Therapy at Women & Infants Hospital. We expect it to be in the paper and on their website on January 17. Very exciting!

Meanwhile Christmas has come and gone, a new year is upon us and the days are growing longer... Blessed be.

Sacred space awaiting...

Erica Nunnally leading a yoga flow in the yurt

Tuesday Afternoon (On Saturday Night)

Today, as I was standing on a chair attempting to reach the top of my Christmas tree to clip the very top few inches, a memory came to me of sitting atop the crow's nest on my father's boat, the Black Pearl, when I was 12 or 13 with my two older sisters, Miranda and Minnie, three and five years older than me respectively. The Moody Blues album "Days of Future Passed" had recently been released and we listened to it nonstop. When we were on the boat we would sit up there (yes, the very one in this photograph) and sing "Tuesday Afternoon" at the top of our lungs- until inevitably, Dad, who would be at the helm channeling Captain Bly, would shout at the top of his lungs, "Goddammit, pipe down up there!"

Enjoy. 

Grabbing The Muse By the Balls

I just read this statement by Seth Godin.

SUSDAT

Abbey Ryan has painted a new painting every day for 8 years.
Isaac Asimov published 400 books, by typing every day.
This is post #6000 on this blog.
Writer's block is a myth, a recent invention, a cultural malady.
More important than the output, though, is the act itself. The act of doing it every day. When you commit to a practice, you will certainly have days when you don't feel like it, when you believe it's not your best work, when the muse deserts you. But, when you keep your commitment, the muse returns. When you keep your commitment, the work happens.
It doesn't matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.
Show up, sit down and type. (Or paint). 

I loved it when I did Your Turn Challenge and was blogging every day. The muse hasn't left but it certainly feels like time has been slipping away. So I am grabbing it back in this moment.

I have in fact updated my website in the last few days which you can see if you go to the Upcoming Events and Workshops. Also the "Sound Therapy Program" at Women & Infants Hospital (which, quite simply, is me) is going to be featured next week in the Providence Journal. They are coming to the hospital on Monday to take pictures of me doing a Healing Sound Journey and interview me and one or two of the patients. I am quite excited about this!

I'm also going to be doing a wonderful solstice event on Monday evening with a pretty amazing woman I met recently- Erica Nunnally. I am really looking forward to it. I loved her relaxed groundedness and openness when I met her- someone who seems to be very comfortable in her own skin as well as being a person with intention, integrity and focus- a great combination!
Check it out here: Lumina: A Celebration of Winter Solstice

I have been staying up too late every night for the past few weeks but somehow not getting done many of the things I would like. In this moment I am taking the time to show up and do something that is important to me- getting back on top of my blog.

My mother at her writing desk, probably in the early fifties. I wonder what she was writing.

Pearls Before Swine

One of my earliest introductions to wholistic sound, sound that has the power to heal the body-mind-spirit was Tom Rapp's album "One Nation Underground". The band was Pearls Before Swine. I was no older than 13. The album came out in 1967. It was an album and a group that opened up my mind and my emotions, unlike anything I had heard up to that point. When I heard them I couldn't get enough- I listened to their albums over and over.

Tonight I am revisiting that album- I wanted to hear the song "Snow Queen" which is from a different album, "Beautiful Lies You Could Live In" (1971), an album I listened to over and over as a teenager. When I went to YouTube, however, the first thing that came up was "One Nation Underground". I heard the first note and was hooked. Interesting to look back at a time in my life that was so charged, so full of idealism and angst, right in line with the times. As I listen to them now I hear music that shaped my mind and my consciousness and is a piece of who I am today.

When I was 17 I was suspended from boarding school for going out and listening to Pearls Before Swine when they were playing at The Salt Tavern in Newport, RI. It was well worth it! I was the instigator on that outing- no one else knew who they were. I wrangled three of my friends, one of whom was 18 and could order beer, to go with me. As it turned out, our waitress had gone to the same school we were all attending and she called the headmaster after bringing us a pitcher of beer! At some point I got up to use the restroom and when I came back he was sitting at our table with the rest of my friends. He smiled, said hello to me and let us listen to the rest of the set before he made us all leave. I think he actually let us finish our beer!

I loved all of their albums- each one became my favorite, one after another. They were like revelations to me, touching places inside of me that I didn't know existed and allow me to open to my self.

Tom Rapp was the creative force behind Pearls Before Swine. I found this fascinating article about him online. He is a lawyer now. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/features/rapp.htm

No Two Alike

Kicking ass on my computer today! Working on creating a flyer and links to February workshops in Florida, thinking creatively and expansively... And trying not to be just the littlest bit nervous about hitting the road so soon again and wondering what I am going to do for a vehicle. Not so sure, after the last thrilling trip I took to FL in my Subaru, that I want a repeat performance. I have put so much money into my car in the last year that I would love to think that it is now like new, but I am not so sure about that theory.

Just listed two courses on CEBroker- Sound Healing for Massage Therapists and Intro to Healing with Toning, Tuning Forks, and Tibetan Bowls. One is a 12-hour class the weekend of Feb. 20-21 at Abundance Wellness Center in Tallahassee. The other is a six-hour class in Seminole at Yoga4All on February 26. Still have more to do but I feel like this is a good start.

No two bowl layouts are alike... I could say more about this... Or you could just come to one of the workshops! Just click on Upcoming Events and Workshops on the top menu...

And Then There Was Paris

Life and times have been oh so full lately! I have sat down at this computer many times and just as quickly had to get up and attend to something else. So, since my last post I have been to Florida and back, done three Sound Journeys- including one house concert and one for oncology patients at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence- plus created and posted a new Sound Healing Workshop for February 2016.

Florida was intense, emotional and productive. Nice to be in the thick of emotional stuff and still be able to get done what needed to be accomplished. Basically I was there to go through books and others odd and ends that I had left at my old boyfriend's house where we lived together for many years. Funny to say "boyfriend"- it sounds so temporary but it was a definitely a long-term relationship and we had lived in that house together for close to 14 years. So there was stuff around that, and then going through boxes in the garage that had books and papers I hadn't looked at in over 15 years- I found some treasures from when my kids (now all grown men) were young and that was such a treat, like this poem written by my son Moose when he was about 14.

Some were funny, some were poignant- sadly having to throw out some of my favorite books from when I was a child because the covers had fallen apart and it was just too painful to hang on to them in that condition.

And then there was Paris.

What can I, or anyone, even say about that? Another violent tragedy. Like everyone I know I was affected deeply. My heart ached, my mind was confused by the violence. I didn't know about it until a few hours after it happened. I was in my car with a friend on the way to Sarasota when we found out- just another day in paradise. We chose not to look for several hours and when I got back to where I was staying I went online and began reading the news. I was afraid to watch the videos. I found myself having to avoid the commentary that followed the news posts because they were so hateful... more violence, more attacks... just on a different level... But where do you draw the line? What level of violence is acceptable? Angry hateful words? I think not. I cried a lot, checking in on the outside- the news- and then checking in on the inside. What do I do with this information, these feelings of deep sorrow? I was up very late, unable to sleep.

In the end I slept about 4 hours. I had a Sound Journey to perform the next day and that is not enough sleep for me. I woke up feeling somber and very internal. I moved through the day thinking about this latest event. No doubt there were many other acts of violence committed on that day, as there are every day, but this one was loud and in our face. I became grateful for the opportunity to create a space of healing with sound, to somehow change the energy for at least some of us.

Sound is a carrier wave for intention, as I have said before. The thought I carried with me throughout the day before the Sound Journey was that we had all felt the reverberations of the violence that had occurred in Paris. I knew that I was in a place of vulnerability and heightened sensitivity due to my lack of sleep and emotional state. I considered taking a nap during the day but didn't have a lot of time. My tendency is to think I need to be "on" and certainly well-rested to do my best work but in this case I decided to use my vulnerability as a catalyst for the healing session rather than as a hindrance.

Before the Sound Journey I spoke about my process and what I was feeling, including my fatigue which everyone shared. I said that, as we felt impact of the attacks, we had an opportunity to send out vibrations of an entirely different nature and made the request that we allow the free flow of healing to be carried forth to wherever it was most needed on the waves of sound. The thought I held was the 45th Principle of Miracles from A Course in Miracles:
     A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and 
     produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.

I think that everyone in the group experienced deep rest and relief that evening. One of my close friends who was there had a significant physical healing which she shared at the end. It was a beautiful intimate evening and I felt deeply grateful that there was some small thing that I could "do", that I could offer, to bring some relief to perhaps a handful of people, perhaps more of whom I am unaware.

Before the Sound Journey, talking about Paris...

Music is Medicine (Science is Catching Up!)

This is what I'm talkin' about! Great article!
http://upliftconnect.com/health-benefits-of-music/

Research Shows the Health Benefits of Music

By Jacob Devaney on Friday November 6th, 2015

Scientists are now supporting the claim that Music is Medicine

There are many mindfulness practices to stimulate inner awareness, increase health, and elevate our mood. Now we can add to that list practices such as listening to Mozart with your full being while sipping tea, singing a pop-song out loud while you drive across town, or losing your body to ecstatic dancing. Scientific research now shows us the ways that music has a physiological effect on our bodies and can improve concentration, relieve stress, act as an antidepressant and more.

Music’s beneficial effects on mental health have been known for thousands of years. Ancient philosophers from Plato to Confucius and the kings of Israel sang the praises of music and used it to help soothe stress. Military bands use music to build confidence and courage. Sporting events provide music to rouse enthusiasm. Schoolchildren use music to memorize their ABCs. Shopping malls play music to entice consumers and keep them in the store. Dentists play music to help calm nervous patients.
– Mental Health, Naturally: The Family Guide to Holistic Care for a Healthy Mind and Body

Take a moment and listen to Billie Holiday’s Lady Sings the Blues and you will be transported to another time. Sing along with her and you may ooze with the feelings as if they are your own. Crank up Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and you will be filled with emotions you may have never known existed. This capacity to feel is core to having compassion, yet music also has a profound effect on cognitive processes and learning also.

Music has a profound effect on cognitive processes and learning

Auditory biology is not frozen in time. It’s a moving target. And music education really does seem to enhance communication by strengthening language skills.
– Nina Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences, Neurobiology & Physiology, and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University as well as the principal investigator at the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory

Musical entrainment

Musical entrainment creates connection both internally and externally which can be seen when watching a whole crowd dance to a live band, or the people around you sobbing at an opera. Science explains this as an aspect of mirror neurons, which are a form of mimicking that can happen emotionally and physically. Maybe a song will give you chills, make you cry, or spontaneously start jamming on an air guitar, or dancing uncontrollably. In the study, The Neuroscience of Music, published by the Department of Psychology at McGill University, Montreal, researchers found preliminary scientific evidence supporting claims that music influences health through neurochemical changes in four domains: reward, motivation and pleasure; stress and arousal; immunity; and social affiliation.

Listening to music has potentially therapeutic effects

The potential therapeutic effects of music listening have been largely attributed to its ability to reduce stress and modulate arousal levels. Listening to ‘relaxing music’ (generally considered to have slow tempo, low pitch, and no lyrics) has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in healthy subjects, patients undergoing invasive medical procedures (e.g., surgery, colonoscopy, dental procedures, pediatric patients undergoing medical procedures, and patients with coronary heart disease.
– The Neurochemistry of Music

Human cultural universal

It is no surprise that music has been used in ritual and ceremony since the beginning of time. Women share playlists for the delivery room to welcome new life. You can even higher a hospice harpist to help the transition from a terminal disease. Music education has also been shown to help children’s developing brains. So it is only natural to place it in a category for mindfulness, meditation, and healing.

Music is a language of energy, a “vibe” of emotions and joy. It speaks to our core desires and feelings. It speaks to our core desires and feelings. It spans language barriers and political borders, making it a powerful means through which humans can connect.
– Patrick Groneman

Music is a powerful means through which humans can connect

Music is also a reflection of culture. In today’s world we are experiencing an unprecedented fusion of ideas through the internet and technology. We are re-mixing historical themes, embellishing forgotten ideas and combining belief systems across time and societies. For instance, electronic dance music has captured wide acclaim as DJs and producers improvise with musical tools that have the ability to drop samples, mix, change tempo and induce ecstatic states of consciousness. This music has become central to the emerging transformational, or visionary culture that is influencing our world view through integrating art, spirituality and technology.
As with everything else, it is our conscious intention or lack of it, that makes the difference in our experience.Try exploring new music when you want to get out of a rut. Just as you are what you eat, you should choose your music wisely because it is influencing the way you feel whether you notice it or not.

Love Is A Beautiful Thing

Today's music inspiration! Love Charles and Eddie!

Inspiration (Breathe In)

Setting the stage for a Healing Sound Journey last week at the Yoga Center of Newburyport

To all my beautiful sound loving and healing friends- I am sorry my posts have been sparse lately. Fortunately, the reason is because I have been really busy doing lots of healing work!

I have spent the last 6 hours sending out information and making calls to people who are interested in hosting either sound journeys or workshops. I am about to call it quits for the night but I wanted to at least do a short blog post.

Today I ran across two wonderfully inspiring videos- one by my friend, the beautiful troubadour JP Jones, and the other by a sound healer who I have been hearing a great deal about over the last couple of years- Alexandre Tannous. It is a video of a really good TEDTalk he gave on Sound Meditation. Some of it gets into stuff that is a bit difficult to follow (at least for me!) but he is so pleasant to listen to and it suddenly becomes quite mind-blowing at about the 15-minute mark, so stay with it! It is well worth it.

I Want the Peace of God

"I want the peace of God." ~Lesson 185,  A Course In Miracles, Workbook

Today is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Helen Schucman's 7 year process of scribing A Course in Miracles.  

Sadly, I do not know how to embed this video, so click here. It is an amazing video of author and musician James Twyman meeting with the Wooten brothers working on music for his new film A Chorus in Miracles. About 8 years ago I read Victor Wooten's amazing book The Music Lesson. I was captivated by it. Clearly he was an exceptionally spiritual guy and aspects of the course came shining through but I had no idea until tonight that he actually has been a student of the course since he was 16 years old.

"This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim however at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no oppostie. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."
                                  ~Introduction, A Course in Miracles, Text~

 

Arguing the Case for Sound (A Sound Argument!)

Thinking about all the ways that sound plays into our experience... 

These pictures are from the app "Frequency", one of my favorites. I use it to measure the tones of Himalayan singing bowls. What I love, of course, is that it shows the sound waves.

I love all the different ways we can think about sound- the word, the meaning, the experience. Ideas and people resonate with us- or not! A word, a phrase, a title, an image, rings a bell. I especially like the idea of sound as an adjective that implies stability and strength- such as a sound building... or a sound argument.

Stop, hey, what's that sound?

I don't know. I didn't hear it. I was sound asleep!

"Sound" can be used as a noun, a verb or an adjective. The following is from www.thefreedictionary.com.

sound ¹

 (sound)

n.

1.

a. Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing.

b. Transmitted vibrations of any frequency.

c. The sensation stimulated in the organs of hearing by such vibrations in the air or other medium.

d. Such sensations considered as a group.

2. A distinctive noise: a hollow sound.

3. The distance over which something can be heard: within sound of my voice.

4. Linguistics

a. An articulation made by the vocal apparatus: a vowel sound.

b. The distinctive character of such an articulation: The words bear and bare have the same sound.

5. A mental impression; an implication: didn't like the sound of the invitation.

6. Auditory material that is recorded, as for a movie.

7. Meaningless noise.

8. Music A distinctive style, as of an orchestra or singer.

9. Archaic Rumor; report.

v. sound·ed, sound·ing, sounds

v.intr.

1.

a. To make or give forth a sound: The siren sounded.

b. To be given forth as a sound: The fanfare sounded.

2. To present a particular impression: That argument sounds reasonable.

v.tr.

1. To cause to give forth or produce a sound: sounded the gong.

2. To summon, announce, or signal by a sound: sound a warning.

3. Linguistics To articulate; pronounce: sound a vowel.

4. To make known; celebrate: "Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound" (Alexander Pope).

5. To examine (a body organ or part) by causing to emit sound; auscultate.

Phrasal Verb:

sound off

1. To express one's views vigorously: was always sounding off about higher taxes.

2. To count cadence when marching in military formation.

---

[Middle English soun, from Old French son, from Latin sonus; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

---

sound ²

 (sound)

adj. sound·er, sound·est

1. Free from defect, decay, or damage; in good condition: Is the bridge sound?

2. Free from disease or injury. See Synonyms at healthy.

3.

a. Marked by or showing common sense and good judgment; levelheaded: a sound approach to the problem.

b. Based on valid reasoning; having no logical flaws: a sound conclusion; sound reasoning. See Synonyms at valid.

c. Logic Of or relating to an argument in which all the premises are true and the conclusion follows from the premises.

4.

a. Secure or stable: a partnership that started on a sound footing.

b. Financially secure or safe: a sound economy.

5. Thorough; complete: gave their rivals a sound thrashing.

6. Deep and unbroken; undisturbed: a sound sleep.

7. Compatible with an accepted point of view; orthodox: sound doctrine.

adv.

Thoroughly; deeply: sound asleep.

---

[Middle English, from Old English gesund.]

---

sound′ly adv.

sound′ness n.

---

sound ³

 (sound)

n.

1. Abbr. Sd.

a. A long, relatively wide body of water, larger than a strait or a channel, connecting larger bodies of water.

b. A long, wide ocean inlet.

2. Archaic The swim bladder of a fish.

---

[Middle English, from Old English sund, swimming, sea.]

---

sound ⁴

 (sound)

v. sound·ed, sound·ing, sounds

v.tr.

1. To measure the depth of (water), especially by means of a weighted line; fathom.

2. To try to learn the attitudes or opinions of: sounded out her feelings.

3. To probe (a body cavity) with a sound.

v.intr.

1. To measure depth.

2. To dive swiftly downward. Used of a marine mammal or a fish.

3. To look into a possibility; investigate.

n.

An instrument used to examine or explore body cavities, as for foreign bodies or other abnormalities, or to dilate strictures in them.

---

[Middle English sounden, from Old French sonder, from sonde, sounding line, probably of Germanic origin.]

---

Cruising at the Speed of Sound

Yesterday was a day of sound and musical wonders! It started by me giving a woman a session on the Soundweaver (a therapeutic vibroacoustic environment) whose body has been wracked with pain by Lyme Disease. All of her joints were very painful but her knees were by far the most acute. I did an energy balancing using toning, chanting and overtone singing and also did some vocal sounding directly into the areas of the most acute pain. Then I put music on and did some energy work and craniosacral therapy. I used tuning forks (specifically a 128hz Otto tuner) on her knees and various other areas of the body. The session lasted about an hour and a half, maybe a little longer. She had a lot of emotional releases but beyond that, when she got up she said she had no pain in her knees. That was huge.

After the session light was pouring into the room and vibe was so beautiful and peaceful, but strong- very strong. Here is a picture of the room after we were done. 

Later in the day, after she and her boyfriend (my good friend Walter) left, I put Mike Oldfield's "The Songs of Distant Earth" on in the Somatron vibroacoustic recliner and went for a long journey myself. It's such a brilliant album and totally exquisite as a vibrotactile experience- one of my very favorites. Sounds, rhythms, melodies penetrated my mind, body and spirit from all directions. I traveled far- it was wonderful.

And then there was Mary Gauthier. I honestly cannot begin to say how amazing- how powerful and moving- her concert was last night. I was just knocked out by it. (Check yesterday's post to hear a great song by her.)

A day spent cruising at the speed of sound... So good, so inspiring.

Music Worth Sharing

In my continued commitment to nurture myself by listening to more live music I am going to see Mary Gauthier tonight at Common Fence Point. I had never heard of her so I went to YouTube and listened to this one song. It was all I needed to hear to know that I had to go.
Music worth sharing...

Belly-Dancing Baby (or, The Crying Game)

Queen Mother Belly-Dancer, Barb Donahue

For most of my life dance was part of my personal therapy. It was something I had to do- with live music. So, it was the combination of the music and rhythm. I have always loved free-form dance, which was basically either modern, when I was a teenager or just dancing to rock n' roll. In the last fifteen years my dancing has been less and less frequent. Up until then I had always gone out dancing a minimum of once a week, but typically 2-3 times at least.

The funny thing is, when I met my ex- boyfriend Henry in 1998, who I lived with for 14 years, I rejoiced that I had finally found my dance partner! I loved dancing with him. When we lived in Sarasota we would go out and dance as often as possible, but when we moved to St. Pete in 1999 we never really seemed to find the good music. Also, he was highly sensitive to cigarette smoke so he didn't want to go dancing in bars where smoking was allowed- and I no longer wanted to go dancing by myself because I had someone I loved to dance with. It just felt weird to go out by myself. So, over the years, instead of my joyful dancing increasing, it just gradually fell away (and, needless to say, my weight went the opposite direction).

I split up with Henry three years ago, relocated, and up til now have not gone out by myself to find the music. At sixty, and single, it just feels a little weird. So, in desperation, this past week I went to my first belly-dancing class! Oy... I went because I want to get back in my body, I want to get my body back in shape and because I love to dance. The catch is- there are steps. There are moves! Oh my, how challenging this was for me. It brought up all my old stuff of feeling stupid in front of other people, one of my biggest emotional triggers. I started crying the second the class ended and cried my eyes out on the way home! Of course I told Barbara, my friend and teacher and the other women who were there (since I clearly wasn't going to be able to contain my tears until I left) and they were so sweet and understanding. Barb told me that she has had other women who came to her class, started crying and left and never came back so she was pleased and congratulated me for staying!  Nonetheless, it opened up a deep dark well of old stuff for me.

The thing that became clear to me from this process was that I don't know how to laugh at myself. I never have. My early years were filled with people picking on me, laughing at me,  and making fun of me- to some extent within my family but particularly throughout elementary school. I was tiny, I was painfully shy, I had few friends, and I was very vulnerable- an easy target. I came home from school in tears almost every day for many years. So now, if I am going to do this (yes, I will go back next week) I am either going to have to cry my way through it til all my crying is done- or- I'm going to have to learn to laugh at myself! You'd think at sixty I'd be over this!


(And of course there is all the stuff around all the emotions and trauma we store in our gut, in our belly, not to mention having four kids in five years. That has not escaped me.)

So, my dance therapy turned out to be therapeutic in a far different way than I imagined! My challenge now is to dance my way through the all the emotional stuff to find the joy that is underneath it. I know it's there waiting!

The Vibration of Wholeness

This afternoon I went for a walk at Sachuest Wildlife Preserve in Middletown, RI- one of my favorite places to walk. At a certain point I stopped and made a conscious effort to feel the vibratory frequencies of all the different elements around me- the dirt and gravel path on which I was walking, the air, the blue sky, the clouds, the different varieties of plants, trees and shrubs, the pounding surf, the birds, the rustling of unseen animals in the bushes near the path. I stopped, breathed, tuned in all of my senses, and took it all in- and in that moment realized that the synergistic effect of all these frequencies was
                    
                      ME
                         
                               feeling HAPPY
                                       
                                              wholistic resonance

Morning Bliss

This morning was cold and wet but for me it was beautiful, leading the Newport Chanting Community in sacred songs and chants. They meet in a sweet little chapel at the Emmanuel Church in Newport, RI. The group was small when I got there but as we started chanting more people came until the room filled up. It was very lovely. They learned some new songs and it was evident that many of them were touched deeply by the music. What a perfect way to start the day!

This photo was taken at the end- you can see that I am pretty blissed out!

Touched by the Warmth

Update: Leading a chanting group in Newport, RI early tomorrow morning.

It is an interesting challenge to try to recreate the feeling in my home that I had at my sound healing center; such a very different venue in all ways except the intention, which was and is to create a warm and welcoming space for all lovers of sound and music to experience and explore the healing power of music, sound and frequency. I guess I am succeeding. This is the very sweet message that was sent out by Carol Dutton, the organizer and host at Emmanuel Church, as a reminder about tomorrow's group. I was really touched by her warmth and sincerity.




 
Dear Friends
I am happy to say Rosie Warburton will be leading our chanting session tomorrow in the All Saints Chapel, Emmanuel Church from 9 am to 10:30 am.  I met with Rosie last week at her beautiful log cabin  in the woods in Tiverton.  When I walked in her door I felt at peace as I looked around her living room which was filled with singing bowls and musical instruments.  Rosie has a separate room for her sound healing sessions.  I felt so very fortunate to be in her presence, chanting with her.  I am truly blessed to have her in my life as I learn and experience healing through the power of sound.  I hope you can join us for a very special chanting session.  May today and every day bring you peace, joy and happiness.  Namaste, Carol

Back to the Present

In an effort to keep current, as well as to share a bit about my travels, I am jumping back to the present here! That may have been a sentence full of oxymorons- but I like the concept of jumping back to the present. ;-)

Anyway, one of the things I have committed to do is listening to lots more live music so last Saturday, the night after Joan Armatrading's wonderful concert, I went to see Geoff Muldaur in Common Fence Point. What a great show- and in such a small intimate setting. I am really enjoying these concerts put on by CFM. They take place in a sort of fellowship hall with long tables that seat 12-14 people. Lots of people bring food and do a sort of potluck dinner before the show. It feels very homey and comfortable even when I don't know a soul!

I have noticed a distinct difference in the way that I feel having soaked up some live music in the last week- a very positive lingering effect.