On the Road with Sacred Song

July 17, 2016: Here I am, on the Road, in Washington State, with my novel, Child of Duende: A Journey of the Spirit. I’ve taken a break from my regular blog (hard to do from the road) and instead, am sharing a few moments of my travels and experience in Washington.
I came here because beautiful, amazing people invited me to offer ceremony and teachings I’ve called a Journey of Story, Sound, and Healing. In Sequim, Washington, I shared my personal story with “duende”, this spirit of the earth that has been a true awakening for me, and also journeyed into the earth and shared in collective sound. In doing so, I’m amazed, and often am, at how, in tuning in, I am guided to create a space in which we can all teach each other, through our hearts and presence, how to come home, one inch closer each time, to ourselves.

My next stop has been Port Townsend, Washington, and more specifically the home of two beautiful souls, Jamie and Doug. I led ceremony in their yurt, which sits looking out over the ocean. Here, just sitting on the land and in the yurt offered such healing and stillness, that little was needed to feel at home.

Eagle stretching its wings on a branch, Washington State

Yet, once people arrived and we shared in an intimate ceremony, something magical happened. As one person said, “All the elements were here.” Our voices and love created a blessed offering for the holy.

We watched the sun set after ceremony and then shared our concerns, reflections on life. Here we were, in Washington State, where the whales are disappearing. Climate change has forced the salmon to go elsewhere and now the whales, who feed off of the salmon, are leaving as well. Meanwhile, the navy is doing tests on the water that impacts the remaining whales. One woman of the group (she bikes a large container of fish to farmer’s markets here… doesn’t want to go by car…wants to live simply and do the work it takes to live right) talked about this, and struggled with what to fight for to protect the earth and our relationship to her (so many things she wants to do). We asked ourselves, what is it we need to do to be in right relationship with the earth at this time? How can our actions, even that of coming together and singing to the earth, and remembering who we are–outside of the human drama–impact where we are as humans?

Tomorrow, I will share songs with Jamie’s drumming group, and tell a bit about my writing, and Child of Duende. But, I ask myself, as I meet such true earth-honoring people on my path, how does my work, my novel, my writing, my ceremonies and teachings make a difference for the earth and its many inhabitants? I can’t fully know the answer, but what I sense, as I travel, is that maybe, just maybe in speaking about “duende,” the spirit of the earth that we carry inside ourselves, and in helping awaken this spirit, we can all feel what it is we have been doing to ourselves and the earth, and begin to dream a new dream, a new possibility, of who we can be as humans on this beautiful, magical earth. And, as I meet others and form sacred circles with them, I am also learning from them how to be more authentically that which spirit is guiding me to be.