Singing with Women
WomanSing was last night.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
There were about 25 of us. And we sang a couple of hours.
I am so at peace this morning.
We met in K's house, all gathered (a tight fit) in her living room. When someone called out (we sing whatever we call out) "All My Relations" we were eager to sing. It took me back to the first night I went to WomanSing. One of the women in my UU church told me about them, knowing since I often led chanting at our earth-based rituals there (may they RIP) at church how much I love them. That first night I wasn't sure what to expect. That night someone has reserved our sanctuary to sing in (it has such wonderful acoustics!). I didn't know anyone there and don't do well stepping into those environments.
I felt welcome from the start. I found I knew almost every song and chant they used. There are tons and tons in their songbook that they have put together over the years. A lot come from the Reclaiming and other early feminist spirituality circles. Mixed in with lots of other pretty standard pagan chants. And some churchy type stuff, too. Along with Native American chants and Sufi chants.
My first WomanSing when it got to "All My Relations" all of the women hooped and hollered and stood up. With me confused. It ends up that it was a song often used in Sufi Dances of Life. And we were about to dance. Talk about panic!!! I hadn't settled into comfort with singing yet. My voice is so deep that I always feel the odd woman out in a group of women singing. So there I was, not yet at ease, and we were to get up and dance???
And it was WONDERFUL!! From that moment on I felt at home amongst them.
Last night it comes to someone calling out the number in the song book for All My Relations. Hoot and holler (my H&H right there in the middle of it). We thought we'd do it sitting, though, as we were scrunched in that living room already, even sitting, no less moving.
But we couldn't!
Up we went. It was a kind of shuffle dance (you could move maybe six inches at a time).
And it was WONDERFUL!!
It was that feeling you get in a Spiral Dance when you are close in the middle and dancing tightly at Center, feeling each other's breath and body heat.
Since it took me back to my first, briefly uncomfortable then glorious, first night with WomanSing, I was especially blessed with our leader telling me at social time afterwards that when we moved around her (she plays guitar and another woman does drum/tamborine in the center) she especially felt my "deep and soft" voice.
Sometimes it is a blessing to feel odd woman out ... having the chance to acknowledge what makes us unique.
"Deep and soft."
::smiling::