Monday, May 13, 2019

Tuning Slide # 4.42- Moving from Voice to Song

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

I think I can hear your song, all of them, even now…
— Dan Millman

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been writing about finding one’s voice using ideas from Stephen Covey and others. Before finding out what that means here’s a recap.

• Voice:
✓ Your voice is your own “unique personal significance.”
✓ Your power to choose the direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.

For that to happen we have to learn to convert different energies.

• Energies:
✓ mental energy into vision
✓ physical energy into discipline
✓ emotional energy into passion
✓ spiritual energy into conscience

Then, to find that unique voice find out what it is about you by asking some questions.

• Questions:
✓ What angers you?
✓ What makes you cry?
✓ What have you mastered?
✓ What gives you hope?
✓ As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
✓ If you had all the time and money in the world, what would you do?
✓ What would blow your mind?
✓ What platform do you own?
✓ What change would you like to see in the world?
✓ If you had one day left, how would you spend it?

Then it is time to find your song. Here is my definition of your song.
• Song:
✓ The message you can uniquely share with the world.
✓ The way your voice is presented to the world.
✓ An outward expression of who you are.

There are a couple of ways to look at this that can help us move toward finding the song we are called to sing or play. One is an actual song that can be a “theme” song for you. It is a song that you turn to when you need support, a song that inspires, directs, comforts, enlivens you, makes you smile. We all have a number of these for different settings. But think about those two or three songs that are always your go-to song.

◦ What are those songs about?
◦ What is their message?
◦ How do you feel when you hear one of those songs?
◦ Why is it important to you?
◦ How does that message fit your life and the mission of who you are?
◦ Can you put this into one or two sentences, or even better, two or three words?

I talk about several songs since they may be in different places in our lives, expressions of different ideas. They may or may not be songs we play on whatever our instrument might be. But they are only a starting point- a way of discovering and then expressing you, your voice.

That can lead to the song of your soul. When digging around for thoughts on this I came across a Facebook page titled, of course, “Finding Your Song.” It is from Sangeeta Bhagwat who calls herself an Inner Landscape Artist in India. On the Facebook page, she tells the story of an African tribe.
◆ When a woman in one 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.
◆ And when children are born into the village, the community gathers and sings their song, one unique melody for each unique child.
◆ Later, when children begin their education, the village gathers and chants each child's song.
◆ They sing again when each child passes into the initiation of adulthood, and at the time of marriage.
◆ Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the bedside, as they did at birth, and they sing the person to the next life.
◆ If at any time during a person's life, he or she commits a crime or aberrant social act, that individual is called to stand in the center of a circle formed by all members of the tribe. And once again the villagers chant the child's song. The tribe recognizes that the proper correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment, but 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.
◆ 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. (- Link)
There are a number of important insights in this. The obvious one that it takes a village is quite clear. We do not find or develop our song in a vacuum. It may be something that only we understand, but it is found in interactions and relationships in some form of community. Thus the importance of finding a community that is willing to take the time to know you and who you are while not allowing you to stay stuck in a spot. The community is one that can nurture and challenge, comfort you when you are afflicted and afflict you when you are comfortable while always expressing compassion and support.

Our song then becomes associated with us and with our own unique journey. Even those of us who do not live in a community where the tribe finds your song and sings it to you, the environment we surround ourselves with, the people we pay attention to, the mentors, teachers, and guides who come into our lives lead us onto the paths if we pay attention and internalize the direction we are moving.

Where that can take us will be next week. Until then look at your community or communities that you are part of. Which ones nurture you and which ones ignore you? Who are the mentors who have that something that enhances your life and uplifts your soul? Think about what they have taught you, directly or indirectly, and how that has allowed you to be the singer of your own song.

Don’t get hung up in words, just listen to your heart and see where it leads.

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