Silence, Waiting for Dolphins, Chant

Silence, Waiting for Dolphins, Chant

“When chant music stops, sometimes quite abruptly, an audible silence reverberates throughout the room, especially in the high arches of the oratories in which it is sung..If we listen carefully, we discover that.. chant inducts us into this silence that is the ground of our being.”

David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B., The Music of Silence, Entering the Sacred Rhythms of Monastic Experience Harpercollins 1995.

We have often sat silently on a balcony overlooking the gulf in the early morning watching, waiting for the sunrise, waiting for the dolphins to make their first run. Then we wait for a line of pelicans to silently sweep by. The rhythm of the waves is like a heart-beat. Today it is a slowly beating heart. Yesterday the heart beat was faster.

At home in Arkansas we sit with our son and his family on his back deck as the sun sets behind the trees of his back woods and wait for the hummingbirds to come and feed before they finally rest for the evening. Nature seems to be calling us to wait, to wait. Our own heart beat slows. Our body seems to say we are connecting to something greater than ourselves. Our mind wants to repeat Julian of Norwich’s famous words, “and all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” We are ready for whatever comes. We think. Maybe. The dryer stops working. We know whom to call for help, and again we wait for the repair workers to come. We pray to take time between tasks, between breakdowns.

What do we do between sunrise, dolphin, pelican times and sunset, and hummingbird times? One more suggestion is waiting for the heartbeat of music, especially the “silence between the notes” of Gregorian chant. One of the most popular versions to listen to has been CHANT by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. If you get “hocked,” you may want to read their companion book, The Music of Silence, by Brother David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B. which may then lead you to a desire to follow in some form the canonical hours or seasons of the day. Another book is simply called, CHANT, by Katharine Le Mee, who tells you more about the origins, form, practice, and healing power of Gregorian Chant.

God is constantly calling to us, but God seems for many to speak most clearly in the silence between sunrise, pelican, dolphin, chant, and sunset hummingbird times.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

4 Opportunities to purchase this book for Lent and have it signed.

Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Gulf Shores Alabama, Saturday February 23, 10-2 and Sunday February 24
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

C S Lewis: Great Divorce

C S Lewis: Great Divorce

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done..”’ C S Lewis, The Great Divorce, Geoffrey Bles 1945.

The Great Divorce is Lewis’ classic study of the difference between living in heaven and living in hell. In hell, people become more and more isolated and separated from each other until communication is lost. Before the great distances develop there is a bus stop where groups of people in hell are given the opportunity to go to heaven on a tour bus ride to decide if they might like to live there instead. Spoiler alert! Only one person decides to stay in heaven. The rest return to their life in hell. It is a choice.

With each character, Lewis describes what keeps each of us in hell. My favorite is the bishop whose intellect keeps him in hell as he must go back to hell because he is scheduled to give a lecture that he does not want to miss. Other characters remain in hell because they cannot recognize joy, others see all the difficulty in life as someone’s fault, some stay connected to their material goods that mean the most to them, some find people “beneath them” in heaven, one sees heaven as a trick, and an artist must return to hell to preserve his reputation.

The Great Divorce is a great study for a book group especially in Lent, which will soon be upon us. It can be insightful for people to share with each other which of the characters they most identify with. Lewis hands us a mirror to see where in our life that we do not recognize that we are still controlling the show and living in a hell, where we have forsaken the gifts of heaven on this earth.

4 Opportunities to purchase this book for Lent and have it signed.

Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Gulf Shores Alabama, Saturday February 23, 10-2 and Sunday February 24
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Part of the Symphony

Balbir Matbur: Part of the Symphony

“I plant trees, but I am not the doer of this work. I am the facilitator, the instrument—I am one part of the symphony. I know there is an overall scheme to this symphony that I cannot understand. In some way, we are each playing our own part. It is not for me to judge or criticize the life or work of another. All I know is that this is my dance. I would plant trees today even if I knew for certain that the world would end tomorrow.”

Balbir Matbur, Heron Dance interview (Issue 11) from Inward Outward, Daily Words, October 19, 2016, inwardoutward.org

Our tickets at the Arkansas Symphony are on the third row. At times we do indeed feel as if we are part of the orchestra. We have gotten to know who sits where, when someone new is there, or when someone is missing. We know a few by name. There are still many members of the orchestra who were there when we first came to Little Rock over forty years ago.

I especially remember one moment many years ago when the first cellist had a twenty second solo very close to the end of the performance. Suddenly his deep melodious sound was heard about the rest of the orchestra and then just as suddenly he faded back into the background to support the other instruments. I knew that if I had been him, I would have been too nervous the whole night waiting for that brief time with the soloist voice soaring above the rest of the orchestra. The professional cellist of course seemed as comfortable blended in the symphony as he was with his solo. He also stayed continually with direct eye contact with the conductor as he played his brief solo part. I later wondered about the many hours he must have practiced this short solo until it was almost part of his being.

The cellist taught me that most of our life is spent being a member of the orchestra with our unique instrument, our talents, blending and giving depth to the composition assigned to us. There will be times when we are called to speak out above the music of the symphony. Before we do this, however, we should be prepared by practicing, knowing intimately our part, especially the timing, and keeping our eye on the conductor. Most of the time, we are called to spend our gifts blending, supporting, and in many ways encouraging the sounds of others.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

4 Opportunities to purchase this book for Lent and have it signed.

Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Gulf Shores Alabama, Saturday February 23, 10-2 and Sunday February 24
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock,  Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast