It's available for a listen anytime at blogtalk radio. Here's the link: Voices of the Earth
An hour before the interview, I was perusing my website and already aware of what I was going to share. Then a story got my attention from 3-4 years ago. Interesting how things unfold and not as we plan. I hope you'll take the time to give a listen or read "Chords of Love" which I'm reposting below. Hearing myself read the story aloud after having not read it in years, I was struck that this is also a story of allowing oneself to be stirred, even or especially when that stirring involves grief as my friend Tim opened himself to and in turn allowed me to.
Again here's the link: Voices of the Earth and here's the story in print as well as the continuation three years later.... Love, Dawn
Chords of Love
When I’m fully present and aware (not distracted by things I think I have to do or am suppose to do), I’ve a sense of being at home inside myself. It’s in those moments that I hear, sense and see at another level the richer reality by which we’re all surrounded and in which we’re all connected.
For example, recently I stood at the stove cooking when my friend Tim’s music crossed my mind. Thanks to Facebook, Tim and I have crossed paths again. Although we were in high school together we really didn’t know one other. (Can you really know another as teenagers when one hardly knows oneself?) Now over thirty years later, we’ve discovered we’re kindred spirits as we share a love of Nature.
About a month ago, Tim messaged me, requesting my phone number. He wanted me to hear a bit of music he had written. If I liked it, he’d in turn send me a cassette if of course I had a cassette player. I smiled. We’ve at least two or three along with cassettes we occasionally play.
Later that day, the light on my land line blinked alerting me to a new message. (Yes, we still have a land line too.) I pressed ‘play’ and heard these beautiful chords seeming to reach from Tim’s guitar out into the ethers, into the Universe.
A thought crossed my mind as I listened to the brief clip. I thought…
‘This would be soothing to the trees.’
I had no idea which or what trees, but I immediately emailed Tim and shared my impression. He enthusiastically wrote back “Yes, I’d love for you to play it to the trees!” and within days, the cassette arrived.
We had company so I set it aside but I didn’t forget. I sensed I needed to wait for the right time although I didn’t quite know what that meant.
The time arrived last week as I prepared lunch. I stood at the stove stirring when Tim’s cassette crossed my mind. 'Was this the time?' I wondered. 'And if so, why?'
Within seconds of my wondering, I knew. In a magical moment of profound beauty, I knew for I heard. I heard the chain saws.
Tree cutting crews had been roaming the neighborhood cutting the trees I connect and commune with on morning walks. As someone who deeply loves trees and also desires to hold the whole of our world including the tree cutters and loggers in a conscious, loving way, seeing and hearing trees being cut always evokes mixed and deep feeling.
That very morning as I drove Jerry to work, I had noticed two trees one block over stripped of all their branches. I was hurried and didn’t want to see. It was too early to be ‘stirred’ too early to be feeling deeply. I didn’t even walk that day due to the earlier snow. I came home and busied myself until that moment I stood in the kitchen cooking.
That's when Tim's music crossed my mind and suddenly I knew why. The two trees nearby were coming down as all the trees seemed to call to me, “It’s time. It is time.”
I put in the cassette, turned up the sound and imagined the trees as they were cut being comforted by the peaceful vibrations of Tim’s guitar. I felt the sounds reaching the trees all along Natchez Trace, trees now missing their limbs nearest the power lines as well as those that hadn’t been cut. I sensed them all finding comfort as members of their family left this physical plane.
I felt them being soothed by the chords of Tim’s guitar as musical vibrations reached the trees in a beautiful chain of connectedness.
I want to play Tim's music again while walking down my street. I want to play it in honor of the rolling country hillsides where trees are logged daily in our home county not faraway. I want them to feel the vibration of beautiful music as they give their lives to become floors, press board and beams in walls, as they, the trees, become our homes.
I envision ribbons of loving sound reaching around the Earth, wrapping in the vibration of love the great Sequoias and Redwoods of the West Coast as well as the tree covered Appalachians and Adirondacks. I envision all the trees and people on Earth feeling joy and gratitude for the dance that we share, human and nature, connected by the heart's vibration, connected in loving appreciation.
This magical moment while stirring at my stove reminds me there are no ordinary moments. We are surrounded by a much richer reality in which we're invited to engage as we’re present and allow ourselves to be stirred.
Tim’s allowing his heart to be stirred is what originally birthed the piece he shared with me. I learned as we continued to exchange messages that Tim's longing to connect with his deceased wife prompted him to play the guitar chords that resonated with his heart’s chords. These sounds in turn resonated with my heart and my love for the trees. (Is it a coincidence that cords of wood heat many homes?)
What beauty! Tim's yearning to connect, reaching for his beloved, allowed me to connect with my beloveds, the trees.
We humans get entangled debating global warming, the whys and why-nots and the right use of resources. I’m not saying that’s not important but it’s just as vital that we stop our side-taking and remember we are instruments of loving vibration walking Earth.
Nature, the trees, plants and animals, benefit most from our gratitude, from an awake heart, the source of Tim’s music and the source of all beauty.
In times that can seem dark, the world is made lighter by the chords of love connecting us all.
P.S. The next day, I walked Natchez Trace with my clunky hand held cassette player with the volume up so Tim's music could be heard by the trees. I continued this ritual repeatedly and then then story continued.....
-Dawn! The Good News Muse
23 May 2014
first posted 20 December 2010
Chords of Love (Three Years Later)
At times I hear folks comment that they just don't understand, care for or like facebook. I share this story because it's an example of the beautiful connections that can be found on facebook and the ripples around our world that result from those connections.
This morning I found a guitar piece sent to my phone last night from my friend Tim. Tim and I have reconnected through face book after having known each other in high school, although we really didn't know one another. I hurriedly listened to the piece not taking in the title nor the accompanying photo. My first thought was, 'Tim's sent me another piece that should be played for the trees.'
Then I rushed out the door to the dentist a short drive away down Woodlawn. I rounded the corner to see traffic backed up only to discover one of the oldest trees in the neighborhood being trimmed to half its size. I feared it's coming down.
If I hadn't been in a hurry I would have stopped to play Tim's song to it. Instead I drove on trying to send loving energy to the tree and the men disassembling it piece by piece. As I drove past under my breath I said, "F#@#$%" then I quickly took it back knowing that whatever I send out comes back around to me. It is hard for me to see trees coming down especially in the name of safety when there are so many other 'unsafe' things like chemicals in the water and air and the junk folks are fed that don't get addressed.
I made it home from my appointment just in time to start work, but left again later in the day to run an errand. I made myself drive by the tree rather than take my usual route. The tree was still coming down and I could not stop. Yet I determined then and there to return.
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| Tim's photo |
At 8:30 tonight I picked up my phone to play Tim's song. That's when I noticed the beautiful accompanying photo of trees and the title to the piece - "To the Top." How perfect was this given the height of the tree and the fact that the top was coming down? It was no accident Tim sent me this song and I had thought of trees.
Jerry and I drove down Woodlawn. I placed special oils on the trunk then stood at its massive base. I asked its forgiveness for humankind's negligence and ignoring all the tree life especially my contribution to that negligence. I told it how much it was loved and as I did I played Tim's piece for it again and again imagining its chords reaching all the way "To the Top."
As I looked up, the moon and the three stars of Orion's belt were perfectly situated in the middle of the two trunks. This was the perfect reminder that not only are we connected to one another and the trees but also to the moon and stars.
The vibration of music connects us. Music is the language of the stars that speaks to the trees and our hearts.
-Dawn, The Good News Muse,
23 May 2014
first posted 20 Feb. 2013
23 May 2014
first posted 20 Feb. 2013
1 comment:
I love trees too and spend lots of time photographing them....
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