Greetings…
I was considering the tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina this past week. I was also considering other tragedies in previous years…useless violence towards so many…in the Twin Towers, in schools, in churches, in other countries all over the world.
People, children, and animals being violated in most horrific and even deadly ways. Man’s “inhumanity against man”.
It made me remember a wonderful story I heard many years ago in 2002 entitled “They’re Singing Your Song”.
I want to quote the story below because shortly after reading this story, I began to develop an unusual creativity when I would meet children or some adults that I felt a connection to.
It was then that a story began for me to add to this unusual account of what I call “Heart Songs”.
I would hear the music and lyrics to the heart song of a person.
The first time I experienced this was with a small young boy in a preschool I was visiting while reading my children’s book, “Taryn Toad Tosses Pebbles”.
He had disabilities but one thing he loved was music.
He would always carry a small guitar to school with him even though he didn’t know exactly how to play it. When I shook his tiny hand that day, a melody jumped right into my heart.
The title of the music I heard was “This is My Song” and it truly was his song. Maybe in truth, it is a song that belongs to everyone.
The words were simple but profound…
“This …This is the Song that I Sing (hum)…This…this is the Song that I bring…it’s the Song of My Heart…Song of my Heart…never to part…This is my Song…this is the song that I sing…this is My Song.
This…this is the Song that is dear (hum) This…This is the Song that is Near…It’s the Song of My Soul…Song of My Soul…where I am whole…You are My Song…where I belong…here in my Heart…
You are My Song.
This…this is the Song that I Hear (hum)This…This is the Song that is Near…It’s the Song of my Heart…Never to part…Song of my Heart. This is my Song where I belong…Here in my heart…
Many more times I had heart songs come to me.
The most unusual was a young girl who had passed away from spinal meningitis. I had never met her but was introduced to her story by a woman
from the East coast that had been approached by her family to publish a children’s book that the young lady had written. Her name was Emily.
After hearing her story, I went to my music studio and sat down at my keyboard. I didn’t know what Emily looked like but was surprised when I saw the image of a young girl with long
brown hair standing by my keyboard. I should have been startled but I wasn’t. I began hearing a melody and the lyrics followed. The title of Emily’s Song was “I’m Still Here”.
I called the woman back east and asked her to send me a picture of Emily. To my amazement…I recognized that it was Emily who had stood by my keyboard that day when I received her “heart song”.
To date I have written close to 50 heart songs…usually it happens with the people close to me but there have been exceptions like the ones given above and others.
So here is the story of “They’re Singing Your Song”…it is worth sharing…
“When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child.
They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud. Then they return to the tribe and
teach it to everyone else.
When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child’s song to him or her. Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child’s song. When the child
passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people again come together and sing. At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song.
Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person’s bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life.
The African tribe says there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called
to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.
The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that
would hurt another.
A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes that you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They
remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.
You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not. When you
feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn’t. In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well.”
Who knows what could happen if this ceremony would be revived and happen all over the world by caring, sharing people. It seems like to me…it would be worth trying as it could bring all people, all races, all creeds together in a sacred, special way. Just maybe there would be no more violence or tragedy.
