Four Winds News - June 2005
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News items posted to this page are usually edited versions of Member Mailings.
Four Winds News: 14 July 2005 - Hey folks, it's been really really real.
A Turning of The Page...On Sunday, July 10, 2005, in a two-part ceremony in an Honoring of The Bards, with song and chant and drum and storytelling, and finally a Chanupa (Sacred Pipe) Ceremony, Four Winds Earth Chorus a labor of love, joy and spirit for over eleven years, was ritually disbanded.
I had been coming to this decision over a period of months, but finally, with the encouragement of Spirit, I felt it was time. The pressures of modern life, the struggling career, our move from NYC, my elder son's struggles with his now-diagnosed ADD, and since 9/11, literally the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, that have overtaken our Membership. It becomes hard to lay claim upon people’s free time for rehearsals and events, WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE VERY MUCH anymore. When we were invited to perform at this year's AIDS Memorial Service, and almost ALL of the core Members could not make the time to either be there for rehearsals or make the event. That told me that the time had come and the Chorus was effectively finished as a working ensemble. Membership was eroding, recruitment was dwindling, and attendance at events was steadily declining. And I no longer had the necessary time and resources to devote to the Chorus to make it thrive.
But I felt very strongly that we should not break up like petulant rock stars, or fade away quietly into the winds. Rather we should end as we began, in a sacred manner, with ritual and in ceremony, the Spirits of our our Member’s many altars and spiritual paths in attendance.
We concluded our rituals with a wopila, a ritual giveaway in the Lakota tradition. Members were presented with pins of the Medicine Shield Icon, the drummers and musicians with Djimbe pins, CDs with PDFs of all our song sheets, workshop stuff, support documents, and another with a compilation of music that has inspired us. Two Members were entrusted with disc backups of ALL my computer files of the chorus for safekeeping, just incase, having already had a house and two computers destroyed by fire. And of course a feast, with gay merrymaking, if a touch subdued.
However, I may be a touch melancholy, and perhaps wistful. But my Zen background reminds me of the healthiness of letting go. Its a lot easier to make a spiritual journey, if you carry a lot less baggage. And truthfully, many Members have found other outlets for their creativity and talent, such as P.U.R.E and Peace of Heart Choir, and a continued presence of Four Winds alumni in the community of Spirit, the mission of getting the bardic arts out to everyday people will most certainly continue. And it's not a bad legacy. So I do not think of it as an ending, but rather a turning of the page, and seeds planted in the ground of the Community of Spirit.
Over eleven and a half years, we have sung and performed for thousands of people. Performed and supported dozens of rituals and ceremonies. Performed at many concerts and benefits, including several Witches Balls, The Interfaith AIDS Memorial Services, several Giveaway Concerts, offered free to the people, often showcasing many of our friends and their music, and Members individual talents and projects outside the Chorus. We have appeared at Pagan Pride, Four Quarters Farm, and at countless workshops in song chant and drum and ritual bardic arts, the most recent of which, we recorded in a professional Television studio. In our fifth Anniversary year, we recorded a commemorative album, and then supported a pagan theatre production of the Inanna myth, and made a CD of that too.
Our mission to empower the people with sacred song and rhythm has been so proudly and beautifully expressed. You should all feel very proud of the spiritual legacy you have helped build, I do. We’ve done amazing work towards building the Changleska Wakan Oyate, the Sacred Hoop of the Nations, by sharing the songs and voices of the four Nations of the Earth: Black, Red, Yellow and White.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who has sung with us over the years, and to all of our sponsors, hosts, friends, fans, and supporters. Each and every one of you has helped make this an amazing journey. If any of you have any special recollections of the Chorus that you would like to share. We would love to hear them.
I want to particularly recall our Founding Members along with me, Kaitlin, Thunder, TJ and Athena. My personal thanks to the Members who came out for the end, Elsbeth, Athena, Paula, Dion, Erica, Joni. Pilamaye! Special Notes to unable to attend, Sue, Richard, Jezibel, with us through so much. And Elsbeth again for her willing and unflinching hospitality over the years, and of course my loving and loyal lady, Heather, who supported my commitment to Four Winds above and beyond. And so many more, too many to name, but you all played an important part in our journey.
I do not of course rule out that we shall be gathered in sacred circle of song again, but it shall be left to Spirit, as the Winds call. I doubt that any of us will stop singing and drumming and dancing anytime soon!
Ya'll did good. Wakan aloh. Washite aloh.
Four Winds Earth Chorus
March 11, 1994 - July 10, 2005
Mitakuye Oyasin * Blessed Be * Ashe * Shalom * A Salaam * Amen * Om
Kurt Griffith/Talking Stone
Choral Director, 1994-2005
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