This weekend marked the hottest August for Ottawa in 100 years. Despite the soaring temperatures, Rebecca and I attended a gathered where we performed music to a group of over-heated yet happy attendees. As we played on, the audience grew more and more comfortable singing along until we reached a grooving tune. Like magic everyone started to rise both in voice and in body. Dancing spoke where their words fell short. In the middle of that massive heat wave, music was able to uplift everyone and propel them to move, even if their bodies would have preferred to remain motionless.Â
Sound healing/music making is as much stepping out of the way as it is being as fully in your body as possible. Sometimes we have help to ride this middle way as we did with the heat last weekend and sometimes we don't have this external help. When we don't, we can call upon that inner fire to light the way. The groove of the music or the heat of the sound healing is found within us, in that liminal space between being totally here and surrendering to something greater.Â
The next time you pick up your instrument, take a moment to listen to your inner fire and see where your instrument guides you.Â
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-Kevin