This month's blog brings the joy and melody of listening and wonder. Many thanks to the Vermont Courage Cohort and Ally Oswald and Rob Meyer, our Cohort facilitators, for sharing the culminating rhythms of a year's practice. This year’s spring retreat was held at Hallelujah Farm, in Keene NH. Below are reflections and resources that invigorated the Cohort and now ripple out to you.
Hearing a Beloved Song Again
for Kayleen
Sometimes after many dawns
a song returns to the heart
and brings with it a new sweetness,
as if in its absence it went to a faraway place
and bathed in turquoise and gold
and rolled in honey and then waded in petals,
as if it has been spending time
amongst ripe fields of wheat
and swimming in the perfume of love.
When a song returns like that,
it finds new ways to sing in us,
and once again our heart becomes
concert hall, resonant, spacious, ringing,
and then it becomes the song.
–Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
***
Music became a central theme in our Spring Courage Cohort Retreat. We invited people to bring the lyrics of a song which has carried them on their journeys. Together, we reflected on: “why do you return to these songs over and over again?”
In sharing songs and reflections, some of us had time to merge lyrics into found poems.
Songs continued to arrive in the circle:
"Listening is giving, listening is giving, when you listen, you learn to give." Listening is Giving by the Mister Chris and Friends Band
"Throw out the map, there's no piece of paper that shows the way through." Stars by Unruly Allies
Of course we had our anthem songs:
“Crowded Table” (The Highwomen)
“Closer to Fine” (The Indigo Girls)
“Glorious” (MaMuse)
And then some that were unexpected:
“There, There” (Radiohead)
“The Sound of Silence” (Disturbed)
“Fuel” (Ani Defranco)
“Listen” (The Monks of the Weston Priory)
And so many songs that spoke to us all:
“Heart of Gold” (Neil Young)
“Shower the people you love with love” (James Taylor)
“Graceland” (Paul Simon)
But the real joy came when people sang songs into the circle. Dell Waterhouse led us in singing “Woyaya” before our closing circle, the lyrics projecting our hope to the world.
All of the songs are worthy of a good listen and so we would like to share them with you. Here's the playlist in full on Spotify:
Spring 2023 Playlist
~ Blessings to WholeHeart for holding the important work we do in retreat! ~
Ally and Rob
