The Lightness of Being...

Soul Song

They're Singing Your Song 

From a story told by Alan Cohen

in his book: Wisdom Of The Heart

 

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.

To the African tribe 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 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. 

You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers. Just keep singing and you'll find your way home.

I have learnt...

.... we only envy what we can't understand. 

It is Grace...

If it goes your way, it is Grace.

If it doesn't go your way, it is Grace.

It is Grace, every step of the way.

Who graces and with what could have as many as 7 billion answers. What matters is, it is Grace.

But, Grace doesn't have a face or a smell or a shadow. It's a nudge, a whisper, a near miss.

If you recognize it and acknowledge it, you will always live in Grace...

If you fail to sense its presence, you will, still, always live in Grace... 

You see, Grace is cool like that. 

To catch Grace in the act... it's ineffable... That you are the center of the Universe and that it exists for you, only you... this is the closest description I can think of...

Today, I caught Grace in the act... :)

Musings...

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A HERO'S JOURNEY LIES IN EVERY MOMENT.

This took my breath away, today...

Here's wishing more such moments.... 

Man In the Arena...

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt