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    38. This Is A Wave

    4:4 Accept Be Present Calm Grief & Fear Grieve Notice Power & Change Protection & Presence Release Ribbon Scale: Minor Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Layer Water
    Song This Is A Wave
    Music & Words​ by Emily Roblyn
    Lyrics
    This is a wave, I am the ocean.
    ​This is a wave, I am the sea.
    Picture
    Notes: I find I keep returning to Emily Roblyn's song after learning it many months ago... I find myself singing it when times are really sweet -- and when they're really hard. It helps me remember I don't need to try to clench the almost painfully beautiful, wonderful times, because they won't last forever no matter how hard I hold -- and it helps me trust that the difficult, heart-aching times will pass. And as I sing, I can feel my voice vibrate in my body, and it brings me into awareness of my own body. Now, I'm no sage or wise woman -- but I know that this kind of embodiment is good for my whole being, and I'm grateful for any song that gets me there! Lots of juicy harmony options, or a lovely melody that rises and falls like the waves.... you sing what feels good in you today.

    Songwriter Info: Emily Roblyn is a Canadian born singer, choir leader and composer, who has made her home in Devon, UK where she has been leading choirs, workshops and singing retreats for over 18 years. She is a member of the Natural Voice Network and believes deeply in singing being a powerful tool for healing, change and connection. Her warmth and enthusiasm for sharing the blessings of singing together shines through in all her teaching, and her beautiful original songs are favorites in choirs across the UK.

    Links: 
    Visit Emily’s website and join her mailing list to be kept up to date with her new musical offerings. www.emilysinging.com
    Or contact her directly to buy the license to teach any of her songs by emailing emroblyn@gmail.com
    Hear Emily herself sing this song, plus another verse here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVmM52zcCPk

    ​    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:16
    Start time of reprise: 00:15: 38

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Minor, 2-layers -- one harmonized 3-ways.
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
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    33. There Is A Love

    3:4 Calm Gratitude & Trust Heal Protection & Presence Release Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Round Trust
    Song There Is A Love
    Words by Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker
    Music by Elizabeth (Beth) Norton
    Lyrics
    There is a Love holding me; There is a Love holding all that I love;
    There is a Love holding all; I rest in this love.
    ​​
    There is a Love holding us; There is a Love holding all that we love;
    There is a Love holding all; We rest in this love.
    Picture
    Notes: What does it take to allow you to fall to rest, deeply & completely? Rest is such a necessary component of healing, and sometimes can be tricky to come by -- unless I'm the only one awake at 2 in the morning sometimes, with my head spinning fruitless circles? Feeling completely safe -- completely loved -- is one of the things that lets me rest, slows the adrenalin responses, and lets my body and mind heal. This song does that for me... whew!!! The composer, Elizabeth Norton, points out: "Please note that there is no "you" verse. This is because Rev. Dr. Parker was very clear that this is a widening circle of Love and compassion that embraces all." We are each at the center of this song.

    Songwriter Info: A life-long church musician, Elizabeth (Beth) Norton has served First Parish in Concord, Massachusetts as Director of Music Ministry since 1994, leading a dynamic adult choir and guiding a vital and varied music ministry for singers and instrumentalists of all ages and stages. She has led UU singers on concert pilgrimages to Eastern Europe, building musical bridges with Unitarian churches in Transylvania (Romania), Hungary and the Czech Republic. Beth received her bachelor’s degree with a major in music from Smith College and a master’s degree in choral conducting from Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford. As a composer, she has written several songs, chants and choral anthems that are currently available by contacting EHNComposer@gmail.com. Beth says she had the great wisdom to marry into the Norton family in 1986. Her husband, Peter, is Tom Norton’s brother. Thus, she has the great good fortune (again, her own words!) to claim Patricia Norton as her sister-in-law and friend! Beth and Peter have two adult sons, who live in southern Vermont and near Boston Massachusetts. Beth and her family share a love of music, hiking, skiing, and birding. She usually has a knitting project on hand.

    ​Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:52
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:45

    Links:
    The score can be accessed through the UUA "Worship Web" here: https://www.uua.org/worship/words/music/there-love
    Hear a roomful of people singing There Is A Love (and catch a glimpse of Beth!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlY7Yf-l8rU

    Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, major, round
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
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    28. Drifting Dark

    6:8 Be Present Calm Grief & Fear Grieve Heal Notice Praise & Wonder Ribbon Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Unison With Separate Harmony Line Tend
    Song Drifting Dark
    Words & Music​ by Patricia Norton
    Lyrics
    Drifting dark, cold and spark;
    floating dream, holiday scene.
    I know this world keeps on turning,
    spinning songs of hearts in yearning.

    ....dark....spark...dream....scene....world....turning...
    spinning candescent, spinning candescent,
    spinning hearts in yearning
    Picture
    Notes: This song began to appear Sunday morning, December 4th, as I was making breakfast, thinking about snowy drives through our town, looking at Christmas lights. It was one of those warmish, wet days with snow on the ground, so there was a mist lifting up from the snow, and the sky was the same color as the fields. December is a complicated month for me, with rich memories of so much happiness as a child, and difficult loss as an adult...  the longing to connect with and create happiness for all whom I love -- the rueful recognition that I can't "make" anyone happy. Thinking of all the stories in December about light in dark, fraught journeys, seeds, births, miracles -- all the hope and determination we try to share with each other in lights and decorations and candles. For me, the song is a good companion to the bittersweet, reflective mood I often find myself in in December.

    Songwriter Info: Patricia is the fourth of five siblings, with eight years from oldest to youngest. Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, and western New York State, a snowy Christmas was virtually guaranteed, and the house was filled with beautiful traditions, from a fat Christmas tree we would go cut at a local farm decorated with white paper doves, tinsel, red balls, and lights, to much gift planning, making & secret, careful wrapping. Christmas cookies left out for Santa, waking up to go to midnight mass, the Westminster Choir College singing Britten's Ceremony of Carols on the turntable, holiday songs on the radio and the whole family watched whatever holiday specials were on tv. A special meal with tablecloth and candles on the table, sledding and snow forts and tunnels, plastic bread bags in the boots and over the mittens to try to keep us warm and dry... my childhood memories are of magical, generous, happy Christmases with music everywhere.
    ​  Of course, the world appeared more complex and nuanced as I grew, and the loss of loved ones I wanted to celebrate with, ugly commercialism, knowledge of economic disparity and the dark history and abuses of religious belief also became part of December.... and, as a church musician, holiday performance pressure -- the collision of expectations and what actually happens. This song is one of the ways I can be present with the whole catastrophe, as Jon Kabat-Zinn might say.

    ​Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:35
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:20

    Links
    My web center... juneberrymusic.com 

    Nuts & Bolts: 6:8, Aeolian, unison with harmonized accompanying line

    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
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    27. What Am I Rushing To?

    4:4 Be Grateful Be Present Calm Gathering & Welcome Gratitude & Trust Journey Notice Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Unison Tend Trust
    Song What Am I Rushing To?
    Words & Music​ by Wendy Luella Perkins
    Lyrics
    What am I rushing to, oh, what am I rushing for?
    What am I rushing to, oh, what am I rushing for?
    Slow down, slow down and savour.
    Slow down, slow down and savour.​
    Picture

    Notes    : I stumbled upon Wendy Luella Perkins a few weeks before recording this episode, when I was browsing in facebook groups of songleaders, looking for new music I loved and wanted to share. I heard "What Am I Rushing To?", and went hunting online to learn more. Several Soulful Singing sessions later, I can say that this intuitive songleader and gracious, gentle song and space creator has become a great gift in my life. Not only do the most beautiful, varied songs seem to pour through her with ease and fluidity, but she understands how to tend herself and those around her with laughter, loving-kindness, and acceptance.
      Wendy Luella tells the painful origin of this song in a time of grief and conflict... and also how she and small groups of singers have sung it in bus depots, shopping malls, and other public spaces in the month of December, and the delighted reaction from passers-by. Wendy Luella has always dreamed of having this song pop-up in other communities, led by other folks, so if there are podcast listeners who are inspired to offer What Am I Rushing To? in your communities, please do and let her know about it!
      It can be sung beautifully as a unison song -- and today, I add harmonies to it that were created by members of my family. Rebecca Csuy, Elyse Wadsworth, and Elizabeth Norton joined me in singing it over the American Thanksgiving holiday, and as we played with different harmonies, this combination struck me as particularly suited to the song.     It was magical, and gave me a way to imagine you all in the room, too... if I'd been really on top of it, I'd have brought a microphone and recorded us all together! 

    Songwriter Info: Wendy Luella Perkins has been singing and making up songs since she was a very young child. When she was three years old, her older brother, Tim, took her to school as his Show+Tell item saying “this is my sister Wendy Lu, listen to her sing!” She's been going strong ever since.  
      As a singer-songwriter, Unitarian Universalist community minister, and founder, in 2002 of Soulful Singing (singing meditation for all) Wendy Luella leverages the power of song to build authentic, healing and joyful communities. A prolific writer of folk songs and meditative chants and supportive guide who helps others to create their own songs, Wendy Luella's greatest joy is to bring friends and strangers together in the transformational circle of song. Wendy Luella has produced three CDs of original music, which you can find on her website.   
      As a response to pandemic restrictions, and recognizing the need to keep on singing in community, especially in difficult times, Wendy Luella transitioned Soulful Singing to online sessions in March 2020. Soulful Singers from all over have been gathering online EVERY SINGLE DAY since then and once a week on THURSDAY evenings. Everyone is welcome to join Soulful Singing via Zoom. 
      Singing daily over the last 600+ days with wonderful folks from Kingston and around the world has encouraged Wendy Luella to share her original songs more broadly in what she calls her “Song Liberation Project” (The SLiP). She has written hundreds of songs and with The SLiP is sharing them one by one on TikTok. 
       Wendy Luella grew up in rural Nova Scotia, and has lived in Kingston Ontario for over 25 years with her sweetheart and fellow musician, Charlie Walker. She loves waking early, walking daily, eating communally, crafting publicly, sharing deeply, gardening bountifully, laughing abundantly and of course, singing soulfully!

    Links:
    Contact Wendy directly to join Soulful Singing, or to let her know how this song moved you at info@wendyluellaperkins.com
    Find Wendy on TikTok and sing a duet with her! https://www.tiktok.com/@wendyluellaperkins
    Explore Wendy's website: https://www.wendyluellaperkins.com

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:25
    Start time of reprise: 00:13:55 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, unison, harmonies optional
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
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    22. When the Water Is Glass Calm

    4:4 Beauty Calm Cycles Dawn Gentle Holy Light Listen Notice Praise & Wonder Ribbon Scale: Ionian (Major) Sky Song Form: Layer Sun Water
    Song When the Water Is Glass Calm
    Words & Music​ by Paul Barton
    Lyrics
    ​
    When the water is glass calm, the stillness cradles life.

    The sun rises slowly, pealing through the trees, bringing color to the sky.

    Listen, ​listen, to the soft sounds of this new day.
    Picture
    Notes:  I met Paul Barton in 2019 at a Circlesinging workshop with Bobby McFerrin -- a quiet, gentle redhead with a warm smile, he was easy to like… and then gradually since then, I’ve been discovering his music, which unfolds itself the more you sing it. I live not far from a pond, lake, and river, all which I have seen at moments of glass calmness (although, truth be told, not at sunrise!) I love the way I feel calm and clear after I sing this song, which he says Stephanie Drouin helped write as they were visiting a friend's cottage, and had gone for an early morning paddle. 

    Songwriter Info: Paul is a skilled jazz guitarist in Toronto, Canada, who creates music for community singing, in his words, "because I want to use my creativity to help people experience the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of singing together. There is a growing number of people around the world who are remembering that singing together can be inclusive to everyone regardless of singing ability or musical knowledge. And, the focus can be on the healing and connecting power of music, rather than on 'getting it right'." You can find Paul leading songs at Fiercely OK and Sing for Joy song circles.

    Links:
    Paul's website, http://www.paulbartonmusic.com/
    Paul's teaching tracks and sheet music for When the Water Is Glass Calm.
    Fiercely OK song circles
    ​Sing For Joy Community Choir

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Ionian (major), 3 layer song​
    ​
    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
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    19. You've Got To Move Slow

    2:2 Calm Empower Journey Power & Change Praise & Wonder Scale: Aeolian (minor) Scale: Dorian Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Round Song Form: Unison Trust
    Song You've Got To Move Slow
    Words & Music​ by Ishka Shir
    Lyrics
    You've got to move slow to find your flow,
    chase that mystery to know that you are free.
    Do what you do to make it through,
    ​and be who you want to be.
    Picture
    Notes: Ishka Shir says, "I created You've Got To Move Slow when I was hiking an area called Shining Rock wilderness in North Carolina. It was part of a healing from an abusive narcissistic relationship that I had been in." I learned it from Aimée Ringle at a Zoom circle, then shared it first with my Pocket Songs singing group in the summer of 2020. Personally, this song gives me a sense that I, myself, can create the space I need to heal. I love the practical, grounded approach Ishka has to singing and song making.... and for the next episode, #20, I get to have a conversation with them!!! Our conversation covers a lot of ground, and she shares a song of theirs that I've loved since I first heard it in the spring of 2020 when she and two of their good friends recorded a few "Fermentation Station" videos of songs to share.

    Songwriter Info: Ishka is someone who sings from their heart.  She has been making up songs since she was a child and has been sharing songs at community song circles since 2007.  Ishka integrates song into most aspects of their life which include, hiking, gardening, cooking, biking, and cuddling clients.  Professionally Ishka is a therapeutic cuddler in Asheville NC. Ishka is especially drawn to songs that have simple yet powerful lyrics and believes that songs can help us heal.  

    Links:
    Ishka's Soundcloud site- https://soundcloud.com/user-943187430
    Ishka's Therapeutic Cuddling website- holdmeavl.com 

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, mostly Aeolian minor (the harmony is mostly Dorian), either unison, harmonized, or round.

    Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

    Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!