The Priestess Is In

Dance with Me Peace!

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I like to dance, although I haven’t done as much lately. And alas, my beau’s gig where you could dance is disappearing for a bit.

I like to dance with partners and I like to dance in a group. We need more dancing.

But what I really love about dance, I haven’t done for years. It’s time on the floor where  you are completely outside yourself and inside the music and you dance. and then, all of a sudden there’s a person next to you. You’re not together. You’re just moved to move.

The joy is overwhelming. In fact, it’s so overwhelming, it’s contagious. I love how these two kids are standing by one another and yet completely unaware of the other… but the first kid gave the second permission.

What if we let ourselves be taken by the joy again? This is a universal impulse.

We squash it out of folks at a young age.

We should stop that.

We should Peace. Because I’m convinced this could be part of it.

Let’s Dance for Peace

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It’s something we all have. For some of us it lasts a lifetime. Most of us, however, tamp it down early. But if there’s anything that’s infectious, it’s a beat.

We’re having a party to read the constitution. Maybe we should have a party to just dance. To let the music move us and to recognize we are in the same place, all of us… happy, laughing… stunned by the Beauty.

We’ve all heard the drums of war. What beat do the drums of good neighbors and Peace keep? What beats make us burst into spontaneous laughter and joy.

Shouldn’t we find out?

Peace. Could we consider giving it a chance.

 

Country Peace

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I always think that country and blues are not my favorite genres (well, if they’re not old timey blues!). And then I hear them. And then I think about which songs I tend to know the words too…

I like the songs that are willing to capture the beauty of a day or a simple life. Even when there’s hardship and challenge, there’s often the reminder, as there is in the psalms, that there are things of great beauty and we need to remember them.

Country music, honky-tonk blues make ideas concrete. Nothing ethereal about them. Just a good beat and some good sense. (Ok, not the drinking, i’ll never love anyone else, oh, my truck blues… but the other.)

Frank sings the heck out of those blues… or is it that he sings the Peace into them.

Every once in a while, it’s pretty great to have some Country Peace!

Improvising Peace

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Peace is often a matter of slow steps. It starts with a longing and then small steps get taken, hopefully on both sides. It can be uneven. One side may have to travel a bit farther than the other to further the cause.

But once things are moving, there’s room for joy. It can get touchy. We have to listen to each other. If we make sure the chord structure is solid, if we play the tune of Peace well, then there is room for wild, explosive, and joyous improvisation.

Peace. It’s a plain and simple thing and a wild and wonderful thing — but only if we do our work!

Children Sing for Peace

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This baby obviously knows that Peace is important and that playing is the way to bring it. I love the composition of this pic. Van is so large; his child is so small. But that child is playing the harmonic full on.

And Van is charmed; not bothered. On the one hand, it’s his baby. On the other hand, knowing Van, he’d be just as welcoming of whatever kid came up to hang by his leg (harmonica or no)… and Van, being Van, draws the littles like flies.

That’s bringing the music. That’s making space for laughter, Love and Peace to happen.

One way or another, making the space and bringing the Peace is what we’re all called to do.

 

Lovers Singing Peace

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When people who love each other, live with each other, and have for a long time, sing together, magical things happen.

These two have known and loved each other a long time. And their singing shows it. (well so does the rest of their life).

But what if we all allowed ourselves to be open to the love in a song? What if we all made space for the Peace? We need to do this. Sing Peace!

Yakking in Peace

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I admit, I looked it up last night, I looked it up again this morning. Does yakking, when talking about talking, have a c… it seems it may or may not. So, I’ll stand with this.

If ever there were a picture of two guys yakking, this is one!

Two gentle guys, always with a point of view, always happy to be together, catching up on the news. They’re probably talking about music… there’s definitely music happening…

We never see enough of our friends, do we? We never can have enough of these conversations. And we can never have enough of these friends. There’s always room for at least one more. Making new friends is a slow but effective way toward Peace.

I’m not completely sure whether yakking is a way to Peace or a sign of it. Or both. But it makes me happy… I wish you the Peace of Good Friends to yak with.

Ensemble Peace

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Peace in the ensemble happens when people listen to each other.

When they don’t, we get to see musicians play their pieces, and they may be great pieces, but there’s nothing there for us…

When they do, they make space for the community to be a part of the music. That’s where the Peace happens.

There’s great benefit to listening to music however you do, but there are so many more possibilities when you listen to music live. There’s all this wonderful neurophysiological possibility… and it happens not just to you, but to the whole crowd that’s listening! Amazingly, when they’re really making magic, they can make magic for those of us who aren’t particularly interested in that style of music.

So get out and listen to musicians who know how to play together. Find the Peace in the music. And find some people to do your work, whatever it is, in a listening ensemble. Make your own Peace.

 

Shared Songs of Peace

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I live in a valley filled with talented singer songwriters. We’re really so lucky. Some of them stay around here and sing for us, and others are out on the road making other people happy.

But one thing most of them do, and KJ in particular does, is make us sing. When we sing together the whole crowd comes together… make us listen to one another to sing harmony? it’s a fun thing and good for everyone. And meanwhile, Joe dazzles on guitar or bass…

Singing together helps give Peace a chance. Let’s do more of it in 2017!