Today's theme was Unity, and we did a lot of singing!
Neesa began with a poem and a body prayer:
All of Creation feeds my soul.
Every leaf and every tree feeds my soul,
The sun and the stars feed my soul,
Every creature of the earth, the air and the water feeds my soul,
Everyone I meet feeds my soul,
And I grow strong and wise.
Then we sang:
When two or more
Are gathered together in my name
Then there I am
Forever among you.
Peter read his poem "The New Religion":
We came by chance, not by our will
To this tiny church on the side of a hill.
And we stood outside and enjoyed the view
Between a skeleton oak and a well-fleshed yew.
Out of the earth this church had grown,
Formed like a bubble of uplifted stone;
A cave held up on the backs of trees
Resting there through the centuries.
And we were ready to be moving on
When behind us we heard a surge of song.
This bit of history was still alive,
Old ways of faith and worship survive.
The voices joined and became a choir
That lifted us up on its gentle fire.
There in the safety of their old beliefs
People transcended their lifelong griefs.
And we could feel in ourselves the welcome release
And steal a share in their weekly peace.
We felt united with those rescued souls
And questioned our modern personal goals.
Here was the song of the human heart
And the comfort that true belief imparts.
But we couldn’t surrender to the god they praised –
That was a price that we could not pay.
That god of vengeance, dogma, war -
We left him behind that old oak door,
With hope in our hearts and our spirits free,
But our souls as displaced as refugees.
We carried on walking around the hill,
Missing something, and we miss it still -
The way to find a meeting of souls
Where every faith will have its role.
We’re searching still for a new religion
That draws the world into holy communion;
Where the distance between us becomes sacred space
Crossed by a palpable radiant grace.
The activity involved more singing, or "toning" - we came together in a circle around the centre with arms around each other's waists and let ourselves make our own sounds, which gradually harmonised into a union of voices before dying away. Then we sang "Returning, returning, returning to the mother of us all". Then Neesa read a poem on the theme of unity.
We did two dances; the first was called "Soul Weavers", which we danced weaving in and out between each other:
We've been together before,
Dancing in starlight upon this same shore,
Soul weavers of sound and light,
Gathered together once more.
and the second "Hu, hu, hu, hu Allah", bowing to each other with arms crossed and hands on shoulders.
Jehanne and Rob sang us two songs of Spring, "This new season of Spring" and "April Fool":
When I woke up this morning
There were rabbits running round my bed,
A furry feeling behind my eyes,
White rabbits inside my head.
When I came down to breakfast
A buck hare was chasing the cat.
When I put on my coat to go outside, oh lord,
There was rabbits inside my hat.
Chorus:
There are things that I can see when I am tumbling around
They never taught me when I went to school,
And things that I can hear beside the ringing in my ears,
‘Cos I’m an April fool, oh yes, ‘cos I’m and April fool.
I tell you there’s no end to the ringing,
Because that’s how the fooling goes.
I’ve got bells on my sceptre and bells in my ears
And bells on the end of my toes.
I’ll let you into a confidential secret:
I’m really a king in disguise,
Or a queen or a tramp or old Mrs. Jones,
Who smiles when the sun’s in her eyes.
Chorus
Sometimes I get the impression
That the world is laughing at me,
But can I help it if standing on my head
Is the only way that I can see?
This morning I had a mighty row with myself,
But what can a poor fellow do
When half of my face is black and half white?
I feel as if I’m split two.
Chorus
One day as I was a-tumbling
I saw them felling trees all day
And stoking up the engine of this monster machine
Mowing down the poor folks in its way.
And I met a strange man in dark glasses,
But they were’nt meant to keep out the sun.
His intent was to lock us all up in our heads
‘Til all chances for changing were done.
Chorus
Well I admit that fooling’s a funny kind of game,
No rhyme and no reason, but then,
There are things that you can do when you are only a clown,
So I’ll have that verse over again:
One day as I was a tumbling
I saw them planting trees all day
And taking apart that monster machine
And dancing all the days away.
Chorus
When I woke up this morning
It was you I was dreaming about,
But the white rabbits bowed and put on their hats
And told me it’s time to go out.
Well I’ve only made a start on the fooling.
You’ll have to put me through the fooling school.
Although twelve o’clock has passed and gone,
I’m still an April fool.
Chorus
Song lyric © Jehanne Mehta
We gathered around the centre and sang "When two or more" again, then blew out the candles and offered prayers to Japan, Ivory Coast, Libya and anywhere else we felt they were needed. Then we sang "This little heart of mine".
Announcements: Contact Peter if you wish to suggest a charity for this month or future months' donations.
Next month's Celebration of Life will be on 8th May, with the theme Gratitude. Neesa, Rob and Jehanne will all be away! But we hope to have plenty of singing and dancing for you anyway.
Enjoy the Easter break!
