According to all creation stories,
The universe began in darkness,
A dark space,
Full of silence.
But then,
From that place of rest came sound,
A sacred sound,
The sound of the universe singing itself into being.
And then,
From that sound came other sounds,
Vibrating,
Resounding,
Emanating new forms,
New life.
And over the millennia,
Galaxies formed,
Explosive gases swirled and condensed into elements and stars and planets and formed great oceans and from the oceans came forth life,
Plants,
Trees,
Fishes,
Lizards,
All kinds of creatures,
Animals and birds and our own ancestors.
Our ancestors of blood,
Whose DNA we carry,
The ancestors of these lands,
The first nations,
Peoples and their totems,
And our ancestors of spirit,
Our teachers,
Our elders,
Our tribe.
And though we cannot always see them with the naked eye,
They are there,
Present,
And always waiting for our call.
Thanks be to the earth and our ancestors,
On whose mighty shoulders we stand.
Let us remember our ancestors and our place in the web of life.
And let us breathe in the sense of being surrounded by all those who have come before,
Breathing in a sense of belonging,
A sense of support.
Breathing in the beauty of the earth,
The trees,
The plants,
The creatures,
The first nations,
Elders,
And breathing out,
Letting go.
Breathing in the support from the 10,
000 generations of healthy ancestors in our own family,
And breathing out,
Letting go.
Breathing in the spiritual support from our teachers,
Our role models,
Our tribe,
And breathing out,
Letting go.
Breathing in nourishment and support,
Breathing out,
Letting go.
Imagining all the wishes and prayers of our ancestors filling our being,
And breathing in that nourishment,
And breathing out,
And letting go.
And now we are centered,
And our hearts are warm,
Let us warm our voices,
Joining in the sacred sound of Aum.
And playing with this sacred scale,
A game of call and response,
Inviting you to breathe in as you listen to the melody of the call,
And breathing out to sing the same melody in response.
And now let us honor our unique emotional expression,
First in letting go,
Using our out breath to express anything that wishes to be expressed.
Joy,
Contentment,
Frustration,
Blockages,
Anxieties,
Regrets,
Hopes,
And sorrows.
Not to make beautiful sounds,
But to make authentic sounds.
For example.
.
.
So on the in breath,
If we wish,
Calling in the support of our families,
Of blood,
Of land,
And of spirit,
And using our out breath to release anything that wants to be expressed.
And so this time now is for you,
With the sound of the bell,
To bring us back.
In the sacred silence,
The depths of you are calling.
Let us be quiet,
That we might hear that whispered music,
The song of the soul.
And as we listen deeply to our truth,
The most wise and loving truth inside us,
We may ask.
.
.
What is this song of my heart?
What in me longs to be sung?
Breathing in support,
And breathing out our truth in song.
And so like the universe,
Creating ourselves anew,
We sing ourselves into being.
This time is for you.
And let us rest and breathe and be a while.
Resting in the vibrations of our new song of being.
And if we wish,
We can allow this vibration to start to move our whole body,
Using the sound of the drum now to move,
To express physically our new song,
Our new way of being.
Every day is a new universe.
An empty space,
Ready for us to fill with our own song.
Let us shift our shape and take the form that we need to take in the world right now.
Grateful to the support from our families of blood,
Of land and of spirit.
Grateful for the chance to renew,
To expand,
And like the universe,
Sing ourselves into being.
