Like A River
Last year, during the lockdown, a group of women came together on zoom to sing their prayers for the world. We met every week for many months, weaving our voices together with deep intention. While we couldn’t hear everyone singing due to the limits of zoom, we could feel the energy of the whole circle, and it was truly delicious!
We decided to make this collaborative video so that we could share this healing-song energy with others. Each woman recorded her own vocal part and her own videos and then sent them to me. I wove it all together into the beautiful project you see below you.
In Your Eyes
For me, it is an every moment practice to seek the beauty in every pair of eyes I meet. I have found that if I look deeply and am willing to see the beauty, it is always there. The world is a colorful place and we need all of those colors for life full and rich. I find the fear that we are experiencing lately of anyone who isn't white to be tragic, uninformed, and short-sighted. I feel the need to do everything I can as a vocal artist to respond to that fear and to spread the wisdom that we are all made of the same stuff, of the same light. This video is my contribution to that effort.
The images in this video were contributed, with permission, by photographers from all over the world, and are of beautiful eyes from all over the world. Thank you to all who generously contributed to this effort. Please see the closing credits for a list of contributors.
Some of these eyes are of Syrian refugees. You can read their stories at the following links:
Lebanon Public Schools Welcome Syria’s Displaced Children
From Suburban Mom to Syrian Refugee Camp Volunteer: These are our Families
Corn So Beautiful
Last summer I found myself so smitten with the corn, with its colorful silks, arching leaves and towering tassels. There is something awe inspiring about its upward journey, its spirited race toward the sun. It's easy for me to understand why corn has been revered throughout history. It seems to carry within its kernels generations of wisdom, as if one can feel the hands of ancient grandmothers tending the plant from seed to bread.
Bless This Land
This is my submission to NPR's 2020 Tiny Desk Contest. The song itself began as a prayer, a mantra,
“Bless this land, guard this land, love this land, heal this land.”
For weeks it spun through my head as a constant prayer, and my mind began improvising a melody over it. I was heavily involved in the anti-fracking movement in Colorado at that time, and protecting the earth is always in the forefront of my heart. (There is actually quite a backstory for this song, if you are interested!) Read Full Story Here
With this song, I pray that all will fall in love with nature and become passionate stewards of our precious earth.
Light Is Returning
This beautiful song, written by Charlie Murphy, was first introduced to me several years ago by my friend Kerry, when she asked me to sing it at her Winter Solstice event. It has since become part of my being, part of my daily meditation for the world. With this song I pray that light returns to the hearts and minds of all people, everywhere, and that we collectively awaken to the realization that we are all one. With that awareness, I pray that we see the divinity in every pair of eyes we meet and that we learn to worship the ground we walk on.