The world has greatly intensified for humans in the past few weeks. The virus has pushed us all to truly sit with ourselves in this time. Many of us are struggling with uncertainty, grief and loss. Even if no one directly related to you is struggling with this virus, everyone is very aware, every day of isolation of the potential hazards and those that are actually very sick. We grieve the loss of humans, we grieve what we had before this all happened and many of us can feel even other people’s grief. So one way or another most of us are in a place of grief. We can feel the global impact on humans, this virus has created, most of us are locked in our homes to wait it out. Yet somehow, all of us, seem to sense that BIG changes are happening because of this pandemic. Somehow in our hearts and our souls we see the impact humans have on earth, animals and nature in general. We are awakening to our full connection to all things alive on planet earth, including the virus itself.
The waves still come and the sun still rises
We were very fortunate to spend an entire week in early March on the Pacific Coast Highway where we met the elephant seals. We set up our van each day on the beach and listened to their calls to each other, watched babies suckle their mammas and watched them live as a community. Each day it seemed we would learn more about them and we found out what they had been through. Elephant Seals were heavily hunted in the 18th, 19th century and into the early 20th century by humans. They are REALLY easy to hunt, they mostly lay around on the beach. The hunter didn’t have to work hard except maybe to harvest their 4000-5000lbs of blubber, though humans at that time likely saw them as fuel. Humans hunted this very easy prey until they almost became extinct! The number actually got down to just 50 seals!
Finally, humans found another source of fuel and Mexico began to protect them. Now miraculously they have grown to over 225,000 seals with numbers increasing all the time. We were inspired by the diligent volunteers that are part of the “Friends of the Elephant Seal” as they came out and counted the entire population! They were happy to answer questions and share their joy in their volunteer work. Each time the sun came up or down the seals would ‘bark’ and the babies would ‘cry’ as if they had a ritual to celebrate these great transitionary times we see every day. They honored their transition from an almost extinct population to a growing population of these amazing animals.
Amazing resilient Animals
As the world began to become infected with this virus, we became aware that these seals had overcome their almost extinct past, they very nearly disappeared because of human hunting. We couldn’t help but contemplate our own future, we have spent the last five years visiting nursing homes — that reality washing away with the waves and seeing change was on its way. Uncertainty is there, yet these seals give us hope that the changes, the EARTH so desperately needed, are happening! That hope is bigger than anyone’s life because it includes all of our lives, including the seals! As the changes unfold before us and we choose to be part of that, we harvest the resilience of survival. Let these amazing seals inspire you, too!
Let these Elephant Seals Inspire YOU!
Now as we sit in our safe home on top the mountain and await what might happen next we invite YOU! We invite YOU to this Virtual Fire Circle. We are calling it UNITE! Uniting the diversity of Fire Circles all over the world and inviting all organizers to take part. We invite YOU to be part of this fire, Sing a song together, get dressed in your magickal attire, play the drums with Bright Hawk, and UNITE with folks that all need this connection RIGHT NOW! We need volunteers to hold a fire and keep your camera mostly on it for the duration of the 3 hour block of time, or part of the time. We need people to step up and offer energetic clearing to folks joining us, like a smudge gate, but virtually. We need people to offers songs, poems, and wisdom. We want to create a virtual fire circle, just like we have all experienced in all our diverse ways. There is room for everyone, although we will need to keep this appropriate for all ages. We welcome children and youth, including families. We hope in order to include as many people as possible in our 100 people limit that families/couples can just log in with one camera. Decorate your space that you choose to share on camera! Wear your magical attire, burn your incense, dance in your living room, and sing with the group! We will UNITE and love you through the fear and uncertainty. UNITE with us!
Please understand that you must JOIN THE FAMILY OF FIRE GROUP on Facebook or email me directly to get the information regarding how to join us in this inspiring event, UNITE. We are keeping it privately in the group in order to hold a safe container, but if your on my mailing list we are happy to send you the information if you don’t use or prefer Facebook. The event will be held on ZOOM and you can even simply call in from your phone, no video required. If you want to share the event on Facebook, you will notice that the group event is not shareable but you can find an event page on my BRIGHT HAWK PRODUCTIONS page that directs folks to join the group, to get the details. So please share THIS event Page.
Winter weather in most of the United States is fairly uncomfortable for vanlife unless you want to stay deep in the south or the desert and then still, at night it can be a bit much. We heard a recommendation from other vanlife folks that it’s ideal to take a little break each year, you won’t burn out this way. So last year when we were offered a fairly long stay in Eugene, OR, we were grateful to accept the offer. It was a win/win for everyone, they wanted to get away from rainy, gray, cool Eugene, Oregon but wanted someone to occupy their house while they were gone. We see the wisdom as it gave us time to be out of the van and buckle down to work on some rather complicated projects.
Walking Our Path
Nicki Scully totally invested in us when she had all the confidence in our ability as a team to create a soundtrack for her Egyptian themed course, a guided meditation. Bright Hawk has done an entire series for Nikki, in the past, but with Sounds True. Hollis Taylor had just finished their online education in sound engineering and accepted the challenge on their first big project with Nicki Scully! Although Hollis has a huge history with tech they didn’t actually have a whole lot of music history. Hollis had just started allowing themself to be part of creating music but for the most part, kept to tap dancing and enjoying music. An old story told to them by their parents, “You are tone-deaf and you lack rhythm” which was later reiterated by friends and lovers. It was a hard message to hear sometimes because Hollis held such a passion for music and sound, but we can all relate to believing those older or bigger than you. Eventually, most of us wake up to question those old stories. Somehow, Nicki just believed in us and our first creation was more than she had ever imagined. Hollis was grateful for Nicki’s firm belief in them because in most cases that is all one needs to exceed expectations.
After Nicki’s recording we moved on to Bright Hawk’s album and we both learned so much in our experience. Hollis struggled with a learning curve not just in music but the tech, as well, Ableton is a complicated software. Bright Hawk struggled with being perfect. We all know that no performer is perfect but Bright Hawk had to somehow have a perfect telling of her story, perfect rhythm, and tons of perfectly tuned instruments. We aren’t even including the challenge of having average hardware. One of the most interesting things about watching a musician or storyteller live is that it is never the same, it’s not monotonous, and if it is, we aren’t usually having a very good time.
Bright Hawk is great with the Live Audience because she knows if she has a great time, so will her audience! Today, with digital editing and so forth we had to decide…. did we want to make her beats PERFECT like a computer? Many people love to dance to this and there is tons of music with this vibration and in fact, most people listen to music like this, today. Even though we know, a live musician is never perfect, as humans were not created that way – this is why we love DJs so deeply. The beat can help us trance out and dance out whatever we might be holding inside. Although world beat is not like this, much world music can’t be perfect because a human is playing the rhythm. In our struggle, we instead decided to record, edit and produce natural experimental music with stories but it still meant that Bright Hawk had to be as close to perfect as she could be. Not just in the rhythm but don’t miss say a word in your storytelling, let your voice go too high or low and a cold could really slow you down! As an experimental album, we just weren’t sure how others would like or not like it.
We intended it to be something you can keep in your CD player and listen from beginning to end. Our intention is that by the end you feel connected, loved, and positive – ready to continue with your day. The music and stories remind us of our humanity, human connection, how to help each other feel included, and our connection to nature. Inspiring and heart-filling, we want you to feel positive by the time your done listening. Instant positivity, perfect for the human race right now!
This year we extended our “out of van” time, again as house sitters! Deep in Eugene again we found ourselves now in service to Indigo – for her Egyptian online courses. Although this time, Indigo wants an entire set of 13 tracks for all the parts of her course. We are grateful for the work and grateful we gained so much experience last year with Nikki’s meditation and then Bright Hawk’s Music & Stories album. This year we notice we are more efficient, faster, and we both have better ears. Also, the naysayers’ voices are muted, including the ones on repeat! We, in fact, have fallen in love with making these guided meditations and want to keep creating them, regardless of the theme. Look for this in 2020 and beyond!
As Bright Hawk is playing with her kalimba to find the right melody for our newest audio project. Hollis is taking care of business and finds something, “Bright Hawk, WOW! We are sold out of our album at CD Baby, they want us to send our stock!” Bright Hawk freezes and stares at Hollis perplexed. Bright Hawk wasn’t sure if anyone would want this album as it’s different and experimental, it is not what everyone is USED to listening to. She took in what Hollis said and then reacted with, “No way!” Hollis smiles and shows Bright Hawk the screen where it says “Sold Out” and then clicks over to the email that sends “Please send us restock, you are sold out!” Apparently CDBaby’s favorite email to send! A fantastic email to receive when your not sure if it was worth the production time, energy and money.
We look at each other and smile. We did our best and we were both 100% authentic, we didn’t try to be like anyone else. Instead, we embraced our imperfections and now it looks like people might actually appreciate that. In our world today everything tells you to be LIKE THIS or LIKE THAT but we were made from the stars in perfection. Our imperfections are perfectly beautiful and the world is waking up to that, now. Looks like we are perfectly on time! Follow your heart, be exactly who you need to be because someone needs you to be that!
We are also excited to be part of “Our Haven’s” Beltane in French Lick, Indiana! Bright Hawk is a featured artist and offering her storytime experience along with a workshop! Look for upcoming announcements about upcoming events for Summer of 2020.
Craving Bright Hawk drumming around the fire? If you have been craving a full Fire Circle with Bright Hawk – grab your gear because we are putting together a collaborative Fire Circle that includes DAYLIGHT dance hours!
YUP, that’s right we are adjusting the timing so that we can include children, families, elders, and individuals that might struggle for health or other reasons with the all-night model. So if you’re ready for something different watch for the upcoming website launch. Mark your calendar friends – June 4th -8th 2020 in McGrath, MN at a place called “The Shire in the Woods”. You can rent cabins and so forth, so if that’s your thing watch this email for more announcements! Our main intention is to be inclusive, we hope to dance with you in the LIGHT at Heartland Fire.
