Singing Deer Healing

Here’s a little video I made the other day by propping my digital camera onto a stack of Girl Scout cookie shipping boxes. Sit back, relax — perhaps with your favorite cup of tea and a Girl Scout cookie or two — and enjoy a “nourishing infusion” of harp music!

~~~

Return To Singing Deer Healing Home

I have started a new harp quest!  You can read my declaration here (and find out what in the heck a harp quest is anyway!)

What follows is an accounting of my first gig in pursuit of the title “Millennium Dragonharper Of The San Francisco Peninsula And Beyond”.

Feb. 12, 2010 ~ Valentine’s Luncheon At Sunnyvale Senior Center

Story can be woven into any expression of art. This was a music gig, but I reflected that it might be a possibility to present some sort of ’story’, however briefly. Was there a ‘Valentine message’ that I could deliver with the music?

  Before the gig I wandered out to the lake. It was a gorgeous day–typical of late winter in this area–sunny and trees in bud and bloom. Swans swam in the water, Canada geese stretched legs and wings on the grass. A trio of mallards wandered close to me.

  It occurred to me that Valentine’s Day is about reminding us that we can love this world deeply. We can deeply love and be grateful for the family and friends in our lives, the birds and trees and animals around us, the magic of the natural world. And we can take this ‘holiday’ as another opportunity to remind ourselves that we do love, and know ourselves
to be loved.

Back at the luncheon, I said something along these lines, then dove into my set of Valentine’s songs — John Denver’s “Annie’s Song”, Pachelbel’s “Canon”, the Golden Oldies “Daisy Bell”and “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”, Bette Midler’s “The Rose”, a couple of Celtic tunes (Carolan’s “Eleanor Plunket” for one), some improvisations to serve as musical candy hearts and long-stemmed roses for the occasion, and a few other songs.

  A number of the seniors listened attentively, clapping after my pieces. Others continued their conversation. A couple of the organizers were dismayed at that! But I reassured them: the harp provides an ambiance and weaves its own magic. As far as I’m concerned, however folks enjoy it is just right! And indeed, a woman came up to me afterward saying, “I hope you don’t mind that some of us kept on talking. It was just so lovely to be able to hear the music, but also to enjoy our conversation.  With other instruments, like a piano banging away, you can’t do that …”

  I delighted in my audience of elders, with their “snow-on-the-mountain” hair (an old way of describing elders), which included women in purple and with their cheerful red hats–members of the Red Hat Society! I’m currently writing a children’s story about our black hen Yikes, in which she joins the Red Hat Society ….

~~~

Return To Singing Deer Healing Home

The moon is at perigee  right now — at its closest to the sun for the year– and so, being a full moon, is at its brightest.   Here in the northern hemisphere we are also at the first cross-quarter of the year, midway in the cycle of the year between the Winter Solstice (longest night, shortest day) and the Spring Equinox (day and night of equal length).

This luminous time of year is celebrated variously as the Celtic festival of Imbolc,  St. Brigid’s Day, or as the Catholic Candlemas or Feast Of The Purification of The Virgin — honoring Mary’s ritual purification after birthing the baby Jesus (celebrated at the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary), and also the Feast Of The Presentation Of Jesus At The Temple.

As an agrarian festival, Imbolc marked the beginning of spring by the lactation of the ewes.  St. Brigid/the Goddess Brighid herself is associated with midwifery, as well as the hearthfire, poetic inspiration, smithcraft, healing, and more.  There’s much lore surrounding all these festivals, and I invite you to explore some of it by following the links.

As I gaze at the BrightMoon rising and engage with that feeling of newest beginnings quickening in the ground of my life I feel a sense of fragility, possibility, and grace.  That the Lady herself (Mary, the Goddess, the Moon, illumination …)  however you understand this warm, pure presence is offering blessing and beautiful promise to all of us, even if the times may still be dark, the buds just beginning to nudge forth, the trees bare.  Mystery lies at this time of year, but also the stirrings of excitement regarding how we will be moving forward in the year.

• What hopes and wishes are stirring in the rich loam of your heart right now?
• What inspiration flickers or burns with steady flame as if on a candle sheltered by your hand?  What are you doing to shield this flame from the winds of the world, to safeguard it and hold it sacred?  It is best not to reveal the flame too soon!  Instead, carefully tend your inspirational fire.  Prepare a hearth with all the materials and care it needs to thrive before revealing your ideas, projects, whatever-it-is to the larger world of family, community, colleagues.   The time of public welcome will come soon enough ….
• How does the BrightMoon reveal something mysterious, whole, and shining in yourself?  How can you coax that hallowed nature into your everyday life — into the way you tend your food, your family, your work?

I offer to you a “Deer Song” to help you in your musing, meditation, reflections.  As always my song is infused with Reiki healing energy and my good wishes.  May it serve you to open a shining place within you so that you may sit by the hearthfire of your heart and discover the warmth and beauty and unique expression that is you, and some possibilities for stepping forth in the coming year as a practical and inspiring herald of something that is very dear to you.

I invite you to write any wishes, visions, intentions, or inspirations in the comment box below.   Envision that each one is a sprig of lavender, rosemary, or cedar, and that you are offering them one by fragrant one into a shared fire of imagination and promise, and that we, as a circle of women and men on the sacred path of our lives, are tending the fire together.

Click here to download or listen to BrightMoon

(This mp3 is 4.30 min. long. Our peninsula rail service offers some lovely counterpoint to the song — listen for it !)

~~~

Return To Singing Deer Healing Home