(not necessarily in that order)
During both Village Choir and Ensemble rehearsals tonight there were moments that absolutely captured the meaning of this quote.
The wonderful thing is that the “first breath” happens with each song…and each time you restart a song that you’re working on.
So, we get to tune in again and again to that focus, intention, and emotion. We get to feel, over and over again, our unified energies as we create an ever-new expression of our beautiful music.
What joy.
When I see videos like this, and feel the powerful energy they capture, I am convinced that a big part of why music is so powerful is because it reminds us of the truth that we are made for unity.
We truly are one.
The video above is of Jacob Collier conducting the audience in an amazing 3-part-harmony encore, at the end of his homecoming DJESSE World Tour show in June 2022.
I first heard a video of him conducting his “Audience Choir” in Singapore. Even the comments are inspiring:
🎶 It’s not the voices that move me. It’s the unity for me…….. Big Chills!!!
🎶 It’s hard to express clearly, but there’s something bigger here. It’s almost spiritual. It’s something about enough people coming together in one cause and there being enough good in all voices to fill in and uplift everyone else’s voices to a place of beauty. Perhaps this is how God hears us. When you step far enough back from the world you begin to see and hear the cohesive beauty rather than the minute chaos.
🎶 What a beautiful moment of perfect harmony among humanity. If it can be done here in this room, we can do it everywhere. Imagine.
And then there’s the group Choir! Choir! Choir!, which started in Toronto in 2011 as a weekly drop-in singing event. Participants got a lyric sheet at the door, “DaBu” (AKA Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman) taught the vocal arrangement, and a video was recorded.
Hundreds, even thousands, of strangers coming together to sing — I can only imagine what a high it must be.
By the way, even though I picked a video almost at random, I managed to choose a performance that Choir! Choir! Choir! did in collaboration with supporters of the Canadian Cancer Society. Serendipity strikes again!
Another inspiring comment:
🎶 This is beautiful. What’s more beautiful is the diversity of people… young, old, kids, races all together for one purpose. It’s the proof that music brings people together and heals. Thank God for music and for artists and talented people.
Reflecting on all this brought to mind a song we used to sing when I attended Unity church in San Francisco. I couldn’t locate a recording, but here are the lyrics (as best as I can recall after so many years):
We are one, we are one,
I am you, you are me, we are one.
And in that unity we can live in harmony
And peace will come, cause we are one.
It’s thrilling to me to see music developing in the direction of not just musical, but human harmony.
On my walk this morning I was thinking about how the answer to all my stresses and dilemmas and fears and worries is to be more in love. As the quote says, “Whatever the question, love is the answer.”
Not “in love” as in romantic love (although I’m still very much in love with my husband, thank you very much🥰), but in “LOVE” as in remembering to stay centered in God, all the love there is.
And I found myself remembering two of the little aphorisms I learned in my years with Church of Religious Science (now known as Center of Spiritual Living): “There is no spot where God is not.” And, “You can’t get outside of God.”
My current spiritual path teaches that God created the universe out of Him/Her/Itself. So, everything — literally every single thing — is made out of God. And (as I grew up saying at the end of grace before every meal), “God is Love.”
I also remembered an affirmation from my Unity days, which started out with: “I am a radiating center of God’s love.”
LOVE is what I want to radiate. Not fear, not anger, not frustration, not resentment. LOVE.
It’s all there is, was, or ever can be. If it seems to be lacking it’s only because humankind forgets and gets distracted and focused on all the wrong things.
But…
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well…for there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.”
Thank God.
May we all be United in the intention of Peace and Healing for the benefit of all beings. Namaste.
Molly Mele
I’m so grateful Biden and Harris won and I’m feeling the joy of hopeful new beginnings. In the next few days I hope to share some thoughts about compassion and empathy; about being magnanimous and gracious in victory; and about not falling into the trap of “othering”.
But for tonight, I’m content with this prayer.
Upon further reflection, it seems like a “which came first, the chicken or the egg” kind of puzzle.
In other words, is my visceral awareness of musical connection the result of my decades of performing experience? Or was I drawn to making music because I already had an innate ability to connect musically?
All I know is that when I’m connecting musically, I feel the flow as something very real, which literally feeds and nourishes me. I feel a sense of unity with my fellow musicians and… well, I just absolutely love it!
But when I’m part of a group where the energetic or vibrational exchange is lacking, I feel stymied and deeply frustrated. Of course, this is major spiritual growth time, as I learn to accept that not everyone has the same dharma or desire or commitment to making music.