Musical Visions

I have been posting music videos in my last few posts, as so often the songs come into my head as often as thoughts throughout the day.  And in the evening, after I have tucked the kids in, it is listening to the music on my ipod and dancing (or twirling in the dark with candles and incense) that helps me to move into a sacred space.  Often I will play a song that has personal religious or symbolic meaning to me over and over, and through that song visions and poems will arise.  Then after fifteen to twenty minutes of this ecstatic dancing, I will be ready to sit and breathe and enter into prayer.  I will be ready for the holy quiet and intimacy of silence.

So today the words and music of the Beatitudes are still running through my head... But another one of my favorite songs that I played tonight was Blue Boat Home by Peter Mayer. As I listened, I had visions of a walk up a mountain with several friends of many faiths, races, nationalities, each holding his or her own story.  I envisioned a new world, where sorrows turned to gladness, and I experienced rituals of healing-- sage burning, smudging, weeping, holding one another, moving toward freedom.   In reality, I did enact a similar personal ritual on a Thanksgiving hike up the mountain, burning sage at the top.  That time I was alone though; now I hold the hope that I will walk this path and enact this healing ritual again with others.  Later in silence, the faces of those who walked with me came to me again- and I realized that this vision was also my prayer for all the people I hold at this time.

For all those I hold, here is the song- celebratory and joyful and life-affirming. The view from the top of that mountain is breathtaking and healing...and all we kindred pilgrim souls, both near and far, are on this journey together.