Grace Notes Update, 5/13

Thank you for visiting the Points of Light Music (PoLiMu) blog!  Here's a quick update on Grace Notes, a hospice choir partnership between PoLiMu and Asera Care Hospice.  Sit back for a moment and enjoy!

We have been blessed with so many meaningful moments – from smiles of engaged enjoyment to sweet snores of sleep. This is music to our ears … just like it is to parents of a fussy baby. Here’s some stories:

• We sang “Ya Jamil,” a gentle Sankrit round about the beauty of God, to a woman who was a voice major in her younger days. When we ended, we realized she was humming with us … and so we sang it again so she could continue.
• A few of our recipients have since passed through the veil since we started our singing visits in February 2011. It is not often than we encounter someone very close to the veil when we sing though. A few weeks ago we sang for a gentleman who seemed at peace, though his breathing was labored. We sang to him about journeys. Later we would find out that he completed his earthly journey about 24-hours later.
• And then there are the stories we could tell you about other second-hand listeners! Most of the people receiving services from Asera Care reside in skilled nursing facilities. Some non-hospice residents spontaneously decide to join our band of singers on rounds to the amusement of the nursing staff. Oh, and the staff smiles we see. Some are coy and some are gratefully enlightened for the service we provide. It is like watching the sun rise change your mood!

We have 8 lovely singers committing their Monday evenings to learning songs in rehearsal and visiting these folks and I have the wonderful privilege of leading them in this project. I am especially grateful to Renee and Ruth from Asera Care for partnering with me on this adventure. Check out the attached picture of a few of us at our first sing!

This project would be difficult without the generous support from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Yes, Grace Notes is one of the benefactors of the moneys set aside through the constitutional amendment we, the people of Minnesota, voted for on November 4, 2008. We received a $5,000 Community Arts Award to cover 80% of the costs to start and implement this hospice choir. Half of the remaining 20% was donated by people like you who believe in the hospice philosophy of caring for the whole person in all their physical, social, spiritual and emotional needs until the end of their life.

How about you?

Can you financially support this project? A $25 contribution will provide a 20-minute sing for someone on hospice services and you can dedicate it in loving memory of a loved one. Because Points of Light Music and Grace Notes is a sponsored project of Springboard for the Arts, a nonprofit arts service organization, your contribution is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Contributions can be made online at http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Polimu. If you prefer writing a check, please make it out to “Springboard for the Arts” with “Points of Light Music” in the memo line and contact pointsoflightmusic@gmail.com for mailing instructions. 

Thank you so much for your interest in the work of Grace Notes.  We’d love to hear from you!  We are so honored to be doing this and feel so grateful to be in your company for this sacred work.  Come back and read about our adventures soon!

When there is light, beauty, harmony, honor ... peace

When there is light in the heart,
There is beauty in the person.

When there is beauty in the person,
There is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home,
There is honor in the nation.

When there is honor in the nation,
There is peace in the world.

~ Chinese Proverb

The song melody I'm hearing in my head is of Sweet Honey in the Rock.  And you can hear a clip of it on the Amazon.com (I would share a You Tube version if I found one - sorry!).

Elizabeth Alexander has also composed an arrangement of this proverb (with minor changes to the text -- gotta love the morphing process called the aural tradition!) and it has been set to a photo montage of Obama's first 100 days (You Tube). 

Two different interpretations.  What interesting counterpoint to the original reason I was thinking of the song. 

This morning I heard about the death of Osama bin Laden and the stories in response to the news.  And I am saddened.  Partly because I am always sorrowful when people die unfortunately.  Even those that done bad things.  You can say I'm a Pro-Lifer and a Pollyanna - always seeking the best in people and in each situation.  I will not deny that I look for the healable moment - where some bit of hurt in some one's past is transformed into grace and understanding.  And that's why I'm sad.  I believe that Osama was hurt in some deep way and that propelled his actions.  Not that I condone his actions and am willing to let him off easy - I don't and am grateful I never had/have to decide how to judge him. 

More saddened because of the response in N.Y.C. and D.C.  It shows me we have a long way to go in finding caring, capable and sustainable communities.  Or perhaps I am realizing this work will be eternally ongoing because each and every life's cycle goes through a period of claiming it's self-identity where issues are black and white.  The healing transformation I seek unifies us, brings us back to wholeness.  How we are more alike than different. 

So I look to song to help me express the inexpressible.  To help me understand. 

I appreciate both arrangements of these words.  They're both lovely.  Alexander's arrangement synchronized with pictures of Obama's first days are well suited for the joyful hope of a promising journey.

In this moment, Sweet Honey's tune of this Chinese Proverb resonates with me more fully.  It's slow spiritual melancholy carries my sorrow of this incident and the hope for every person and every nation. 

May songs find you to accompany your day. 

Blessings.  C~

I Am in Need of Music

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

By Elizabeth Bishop, American (1911-1979)

from:  http://www.poemhunter.com/elizabeth-bishop/biography/
Thanks Deb for sharing this with me! C~

notes of grace moment

Grace Notes has sung at the same nursing home three times over the last five weeks while my volunteer coordinator contact at the hospice was in transition.  The sweetest thing about this has been observing some of the subtle and sometimes not so subtle changes in those we see. 

Four weeks ago, we sang for a gentleman who was hunched over in a wheelchair, hardly lifting his head.  Two weeks ago we sang for him and he met our gaze with an energetic tongue.  Though it was a bit disturbing, we sang a few songs to him with our usual unswerving kindness and love. 

Tonight, we found him in bed.  He seemed relaxed and glad to see us, willingly turned off the TV with his remote and quietly encouraged us to learn Danny Boy and When Irish Eyes are Smiling.  My fellow singer and I sang only part of a song to this gentleman, because his roommate was on the phone reporting that his roommate had minstrels!  I think the roommate was envious that he didn't have musical visitors.  Our gentleman gently gave us the non-verbal cutoff sign and apologized for his roommate's behavior.  He seemed to enjoy our visit, even though it was short. I have enjoyed seeing him more engaged each visit. 

That's tonight's top Grace Note.  Stay tuned for more stories...