Name: Stinging Nettles & Breathing Underwater: EmbodimentMatters Newsletter 9/16/21 by Erin-La
Duration: 12 min 36 s
Description: 9/16/21 Embodiment Matters Newsletter read by Erin Geesaman Rabke

יִשְׂמְחוּ בְמַלְכוּתְךָ, שׁוֹמְרֵי שַׁבָּת וְקֽוֹרְאֵי עֹֽנֶג

Yismechu v’malchuscha shomrei shabbos v’korei oneg

They will delight in your all empowering sovereignty - those who tend and care for shabbos and call it a joyous celebration

Credits from Karov, released August 20, 2020:
Batya Levine - lead vocals
Anat Halevy Hochberg - vocals
Aly Halpert - vocals
Molly Bajgot - vocals
Micah Shapiro - vocals
Arielle Rivera Korman - violin
Joey Weisenberg - percussion & bass
Richie Barshay - percussion

Please check out and support Batya! She has a website here: www.batyalevine.com, a Bandcamp here: batyalevine.bandcamp.com/album/karov, a Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/batyalevine, and is on streaming services such as Spotify. Also, make sure to check out Rising Song Records and all of their amazing artists: https://risingsongrecords.bandcamp.com/.

This remix also features Chris Dickson on the bass and me on guitar.

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If you made it this far, you get to read a quick personal note:
 
I first came upon Batya's original Soundcloud recording (https://soundcloud.com/batyalevine/yismechu-batya-levine) after I had just quit my job and was walking my former colleague's dog for money. The magic of the melody struck me hard and I listened to it on repeat while Basil dragged me through the streets of Somerville. I was so stoked it made the album and made everyone at my sister's socially distant birthday party listen to it the day it came out. I must have heard the melody a thousand times working on the remix and the magic still holds.

It's been a tremendous joy to work with Batya and their melody on this remix. I'm not sure if music production is really my thing in the long run, but my stance remains strong regarding the creation of contemporary Jewish dance music: somebody's got to do it.

Batya Levine - Yismechu (Diva Nigun Remix) - Now on Spotify!

9/16/21 Embodiment Matters Newsletter read by Erin Geesaman Rabke

Stinging Nettles & Breathing Underwater: EmbodimentMatters Newsletter 9/16/21

Round House Song Sessions
July 23rd, 2016
Millerton, NY

recorded by: Aly Halpert, Shelby Handler, Beck Gross, Batya Levine & Margot Seigle

lyrics:
I am grateful for the unknown blessings already on their way 
I am grateful for the unknown blessings already on their way 

I will not 
Look back in anger
Or forward in fear
But around in awareness

The Haudenosaunee believe that words of gratitude come before all else that should be said in a conversation, and the initial words of this song are credited to them.  Sarah Thompson learned this song, which expands on that concept, while doing ecological social justice work with Joanna Macy. Batya heard it from Sarah while they sat in the red tent during Passover in the Desert with Wilderness Torah.  The version recorded here is Batya's crafting.

original words:
We give thanks 
for the unknown blessings
already on their way (2x)

We will not
look back in anger
or forward in fear
but around in awareness...

We give thanks

AV - I Am Grateful

Inspired by nomadic years, the wisdom of the body and nervous system, change, Somatic Reality: Bodily Experience and Emotional Truth by Stanley Kelemen, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess community, and the Judaism of my ancestors. Received to the tune of Avinu Malkeinu, a traditional Jewish High Holidays prayer.

Deep gratitude to my teachers, community and bright and well ancestors: Taya Shere, Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ibrahim Baba, my parents, Zaide, Grandpa, the Romanian women, Kohenet and so many more. Thank you.

Lyrics:
Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and listen to the wind
All comes together; all falls apart
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and draw yourself near
The rocks are your keepers
Tell them your stories
Now it is safe to be here

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and you will receive
Life wants to meet you where you are
Not where you think you should be

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and you will be shown
The love that was always lifting you up
You are never alone

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down child, slow down (x4)

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and listen to the wind
All comes together; all falls apart
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow Down / The Mother's Response (Preview)

Song/prayer/meditation to heal personal and societal grief. For ordinary grief, extraordinary grief, the unbearable kind and the unseen kind and the enduring kind, in service of exhales and letting go of what is ours and not ours, of compassion, lightness, & becoming who we are after and through it all.

Aly Halpert's Album

Loosen Loosen

A slow song brought to you by the waters of the Webatuck swamp - Schagticoke / Mahican land. 

Water provides life. From the rain, the dew, the ocean, water heals and holds, and sings so many songs through us. I am grateful to the waters for being such a teacher, and invite you to honor them with this song.

The hebrew at the end is the traditional prayer said for a Mikveh, ritual immersion or bath:

Barukh atah Adonay Eloheynu ruach ha-olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al ha-t'vilah.

Blessed are you, source of creation,  of the universe, who sanctifies us through mitzvot and has shown us immersion.

lizard popping bubbles

Great Waters

for the trans bodies, covid bodies, black & brown bodies, disabled and chronically ill bodies, gloriously fat bodies & all the bodies that have to forge their own beautiful path to wholeness.

this body is the earth that holds my bones
this body is the air that i breathe
this body is the water flowing at the shore
this body is the path that guides me home

this body, this body, this body sets me free

This Body

let it blow through
let it blow through 

open up the windows of your soul and let it blow through

hard times come and hard times go 

let it blow through

Stinging Nettles & Breathing Underwater: EmbodimentMatters Newsletter 9/16/21

Erin-La

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