LIFE IS A BODY FILLED WITH MUSIC

I started writing songs when I was nine or ten. They were simple themes with the intention to make them into musicals. I would often write story lines along with them. It's curious to see how my relationship with music and writing has come along. I've watched the desire from being so intense, so deliberate when I was growing up. Every chance to be on stage--I took it. There were times we'd go to the store, Dad and sis and me, in Dad's pick up. Right when we'd get out of the truck, I'd hop in the bed of the truck and start singing at the top of my lungs, I'd whale and flail my arms about as if I were in a Broadway show. You can imagine how my Dad and Sister felt. Sister often walked off as if she didn't know me (which was the case most of the time we were together). And Dad often persuaded me to get down, and stop making a scene. But I was uncontrollable, then. To a certain extent I am still uncontrollable now. And that spirit is wonderful for songwriting. Especially when the songs are used for motivating others toward positive change--social change, personal change makes little difference.

Music affects our lives, the way we think, the way we act. Almost immediately, we can feel the way the music we are hearing is affecting us. To be honest, I don't listen to recorded music very much. I enjoy the singing of birds, the sound of the wind in the palms, even the whir of electricity running through the house. It's all music. It all puts out its own vibration. Every living organism has its own vibration. Plants, animals and minerals. And each of us has our own song. That song we sing goes with us wherever we go. It changes too. As we grow old, our song refines. And as we are passing, our song leaves our body. Death is a body without a song. Life is a body filled with music.

Listen, and you will hear it. The song of your heart. The rythmn of your soul. Wonderful!

MUSIC AND SPIRITUALITY

I was twelve years old when I started performing onstage professionally. A group of us put together a benefit concert, educating the public on their choices: to be happy, to be at peace in themselves and in the world, to accept the responsibilities of their actions, and to protect the earth. Our mission, my mission, was to heal the world with music.

Since, I've incorporated spiritual practice into my work. It's been more than ten years since I began training as a yogi and meditator. I remember when I was young hugging trees and touching the earth. I was born with an innate sensitivity to energy, to the energetic body.
The integration of music and spirituality is essential. Music is that unseen energy that affects us so profoundly, that stays with us, that touches our heart, that is so much a part of our lives even when we are not aware of it.

Spirituality is such an individualized thing--the way we get in touch with our spiritual nature is unique to our experience. To know the truth of who you are you must live that impalpable you. When you live that thing, you become real, and that experience, that holy experience becomes something you can touch.

I've put online all the beautiful spiritual orations from Tuesday Night Mindfulness Group as well as retreats we've offered in Las Vegas and Southern Utah. Please feel free to listen to the clips offered on my web-site. And let me know how you feel.