song + lyrics + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis
inspiration: Elah Celandine Elizabeth Shenk Bauman

Elah’s Lullaby

“For all that has been, thank you. For all that is to come, yes!”

             - Dag Hammarskjold

lyrics:
for all that has been
we say thank you
for all that is to come
we say yes

song + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis
lyrics: Dag Hammarskjold

For All That Has Been

This is a song for welcoming all the parts of ourselves - especially those parts we are tempted to push away: grief, despair, loneliness, anger...

This song came at a time when I was feeling deeply lonely. I felt the impulse to reject this sensation, this part of myself, and this song came through as just the medicine I needed in that moment.

song + lyrics + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis

You Are Welcome Here

song + lyrics + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis

Lay It All Down

"I move from wholeness to wholeness, always complete, always full."

             - Jonathan Gustin & Purpose Guides Institute from The Purpose Octagon # 1 : Care of the Soul


You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

             - excerpt from Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

lyrics:
i move from wholeness to wholeness
always complete, always full

you do not have to be good

let your soul work on you


song + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis
lyrics: Jonathan Gustin & Purpose Guides Institute; Mary Oliver
artwork by Maggie Walker

Wholeness to Wholeness

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

             - from 'The Prophet' by Khalil Gibran

In May 2022 I spent 8 hours inside a 6-foot circle on a patch of land on the edge of a swamp in the foothills of the Cascades in western Washington. At first, I felt myself habitually shrink and try to be perfectly still and quiet in hopes that I might have an encounter with some of the Wild Others on the land. Something deep inside sensed that this somatic movement was all-too-familiar – it was the movement of shrinking my full size and loping off parts of my authentic expression in order to 'belong' with others, human and otherwise. So instead of choosing this familiar posture, I reached for the egg shaker I had brought with me (which you can hear on the recording) and began making noise and taking up space - asserting the importance of my own expression - learning that in order to be in authentic relationship, I must bring all of myself to it, loud messiness and all. To my surprise, the birds came closer as I got louder. A few days later as I took time to this experience, the song was born.

lyrics:
just as the breeze blows the trees
you must take up your space

when i take up my space
the Mystery comes even closer

and forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet
and the winds long to play with your hair

song + lyrics + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis
pt 3 lyrics: Khalil Gibran

Forget Not

This is a song for the moment when we see the ways we have kept ourselves small and bound up in internalized oppression and realize we no longer need those patterns and can lay them down. A moment of Grace.

It came through while listening to a message from a dear friend who used the phrase "leaving my father's house", which I later learned was in reference to the title of the book by Marian Woodman which speaks to a lot of the themes present in this song. Immediately upon hearing the phrase, I paused the message mid-listen and this song came through.


lyrics + vocals + percussion: Joanna Laws Landis
recorded by: Eli Rosenblatt

Leaving My Father's House

This song came through while preparing for a weekend grief retreat and feeling around for just the right song to begin our time together. None of the songs I already knew quite captured the sense of calling in and coming together that I was longing for, and so this song was born.

It is intended as a "zipper" song. In the recording I use words like "hope, courage, tears, our fears...", but the intention is for those singing to "zip in" the words that are true for them, whether joyful or heavy: What are you arriving with? What is with you that we can invite into the center?

lyrics:
we gather with *hope*...
in the presence of all who hold us
we gather with *hope* in the presence of love

we are not alone here, we are not alone

...courage, tears, our fears...

song + lyrics + vocals: Joanna Laws Landis

Joanna Laws Landis

Popular tracks