A Waking Song

It's early January and our Spiritual Journey group has the habit of choosing One Little Word (OLW) as a guide for the year. Choosing the word can be an arduous journey in itself. I notice that several of us have considered a particular word, decided to look further, but ended up coming back to the first word. I'm in that camp this year.

I've been waking from sleep with songs in my head. A dream may be vividly playing in color, random and surprising, but usually behind it is a song. It may be a song I've most recently sung in choir, but sometimes it's a song from childhood, a song I haven't heard in years. It doesn't matter where they come from or how much of the tune I remember, it's playing back there in my subconscious. How wonderful that we have this gift of song, given to so few creatures on earth. 

My OLW for 2024 will be SONG.  Songs express a multitude of emotions, rhythms, attitudes, voices, and volumes. I will follow them through the year. 

Once upon a time, when women were birds,

there was the simple understanding that

to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk

was to heal the world through joy.

The birds still remember

what we have forgotten,

that the world is meant to be

celebrated.

- Terry Tempest Williams

The above image and verse speak to me strongly. Certainly our world can use healing through joy. Certainly we need reminding. The poem also embraces a myth mentioned in To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey, in which native Alaskan women can change into birds. I highly recommend this book if you have not read it. 

My best wishes to all of you for 2024. May you find a song in your heart and a dance in your step. 

My thanks to Margaret Simon for supplying us with the beautiful new logo found at the top of this post, and for organizing this group and hosting us this month.