Episode 140

The Feast

with guest Heidi Wilson

Art by Patty Piotrowski

Hello Singer of Wellness!

All italicized words from "The Feast" by Heidi Wilson.

Holy fire in the sun

Heat in the center of each of the 30 trillion or so cells in our bodies. Alive, we burn.

Water in the river and wind within my lungs.

Liquid slides in our unlikely human concatenation of parts. Air dances between our lungs and all that's green.

Holy earth beneath my feet.

We are well-held to this one planet, connected by gravity to the teeming life of soil and water... ground of our energy, our vitality.

All of us are offerings and also at the feast.

How did we get so lucky? That we are elemental -- fire, water, air, earth --and we can know it, sense it, name it -- incredible.

Our 4 year-old granddaughter, Claire, has a thick coloring book with hundreds of pictures -- unicorns, llamas, aliens, planets and more in kind of a quasi-comic book super-hero style -- it is quite the tome. The other night, she wanted to show me one particular picture. She said it was a cat "exploding things with rays from its eyes." I couldn't begin to imagine... but after an extensive search, she triumphantly turned the book to me. A standing cat with rays shooting out of its eyes and landing on the ground in big star shapes! Incredible.

Claire loves this picture.... and I get it. There's something about the power of the gaze there -- the power of attention and (you knew this was coming around, right?) when Heidi and I talked for this episode, I felt that kind of searing attention. We talk noticing, gratitude, "medicine for the eyeballs," how to get traction during a great unravelling, when to keep your eyes open. 

Heidi shares practical songleading advice, mixed with contagious laughter, and a pile of questions. She describes a beautiful practice of singing in wild places -- and the exciting project that has grown out of that. (Does anyone have a cave that can hold a 3-person musical and a crankie???) 

I take from this conversation both a beautiful, unusual song of gratitude, and also the charge of hearing someone talk with openness and passion about navigating life.

As I read your name, I'm imagining all of us shooting eye-rays that end in starry explosions which cover the objects of our intense attention! I'm imagining us recognizing our elemental gathering at this feast of life! And I'm grateful. Incredibly grateful. Thank you so much for being on your own journey through life with song. I'm glad we're in it together!

CAN YOU IMAGINE what it feels like to bring your questioning heart to these trees to listen in song and community? 

I would be deeply excited and honored to host you at this four-day A Breath of Song retreat at the Rowe Center in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts from May 30th-June 2nd, 2024.

Registration is open, and there is only one more spot in the founding fifteen... at which point Rowe opens the event to their mailing list, so I'd love to help "my people" (that would be you!) save your places soon...

If sheet music is your jam, click the song to go to a downloadable pdf, shared with Heidi's generous blessing. I transcribed; any mistakes are mine alone!

Why a gratitude jar?

Because reciprocity counts.
A gratitude jar allows us to receive from you--

and so you give to us who give A Breath of Song to you,
in a beautiful cycle of mutual tending.

Contribute on a one-time or recurring basis:
it's easy, reliable,
and deeply appreciated.

Other ways to give back to us? Of course!

Share, review, comment.
A world jam-packed with people
tuning in to themselves and each other would be
the best reciprocity imaginable.

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