Where there is grief there is holy ground
Where there is grief there is holy ground
Walk this ground, walk this ground
Walk this ground with me

Where there is grief there are sacred tears 
Where there is grief there are sacred tears
Shed these tears, shed these tears
Shed these tears with me

Where there is grief there is deeper love
Where there is grief there is deeper love
Feel this love, feel this love
Feel this love with me

Where There is Grief

A simple all-and-response song of welcome to all the states our hearts might be in as we gather. I encourage you to sing this on your own with your own words - how is your heart right now? Welcome in.

Welcome in, wild hearts
Welcome in, wild hearts
Welcome in, wild hearts
We will sing our way to wholeness
We will sing our way to wholeness

...and tender... seeking... grieving... courageous... & wild hearts

Welcome In, Wild Hearts

Ancestor Song came through in Spring 2022 when I was walking with my dad. At this point in his dementia, he said a lot of odd things. On that particular day he said “my mother of ten thousand names”. What was he trying to say? To a “normal” brain it didn’t make sense, but it was so poetic that I knew I needed to put the line in a song. So, just like that my dad and I were collaborating in songwriting and he didn’t even know it. Thank you ancestors, thank you angels, thank you Dad!

Ancestor Song

Pt 1
On a night like this I swim with the moon
Flowing through my soul, oohh

Pt 2
La luna calls to me
Open to her ecstacy

Pt 3
Let it out, let it out
Let it all out
Shake it off, shake it off
Dance in your fullness, dance in your fullness
Beauty

Pt 4
I want to howl
I want to scream
In this moon dance I feel all of me

Dance in Your Fullness (moon song)

Sung with Rachel Chang (guitar + vox) and Marni Loffman (vox)

Lyrics:
In doing and in dreaming
You’ve been dropping seeds behind you that will flower in due time
You will never know all the change that you help sow
But just know that it’s happening all the time
You will never know all the beauty you help grow
But just know that it’s happening all the time
All the time (x4)

In Doing & In Dreaming

Venice Bitch (Lana Del Rey cover)

Bele Mama - From Cameroon, in West Africa

This is a great ice-breaker of a song! The perfect opener. It gets your group singing in harmony in a matter of minutes. Possible meaning is "Mama come out and play!" When I first learned this, I learned that it was from the Torres Straight Islands and that it meant "Beautiful Earth." The more research I do, the more I find that it's actually from West Africa and has traveled and traveled far and wide. Enjoy!

This song is in the public domain
Arrangement by Heather Houston

To learn the individual parts to this song, please visit my Public Song Library:
https://heatherhoustonmusic.com/sisters-in-harmony-song-library/

Lyrics:

Bele mama, bele mama ee ay
Bele mama, bele mama ee ay
Bele mama, bele mama, bele mama, bele mama,
Bele mama, bele mama ee eh

Bele Mama - All Parts

You can purchase the Elul album, which was compiled, recorded & edited by Anat Hochberg & Matt Goldfield here:
https://elulmusicproject.bandcamp.com/releases
This album features a beautiful collection of original songs for Elul by various contemporary Jewish musicians.

This song came through in the forests of the Blue Hills, which is on the land of the Massachusett tribe. Sometimes it may seem that all of our leaves fall down, onto the forest floor, and our branches lie bare & exposed in the cold wind. Shedding tears and the things that no longer serve us, we are stripped down to our most basic selves. This leaves us vulnerable, and it naturally opens up a space for teshuva, a return to self. Because we are the water, earth, fire and wind, and we can call on these powers, to help us through.

LYRICS:
all the leaves have fallen down, have fallen down
all the leaves have fallen down, have fallen down

i am the water, earth, fire & wind
dig deep my roots and return again
i am the water, earth, fire & wind
return again

CREDITS:
from Elul: Songs for Turning, released September 7, 2017
Batya Levine: vocals
Anat Hochberg: vocals
Micah Shapiro: djembe, vocals
Album Art: Roz Freeman

Elul: Songs for Turning

All The Leaves

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

A song from the depths of grieving

www.madelynilana.com

https://madelynilana.bandcamp.com/album/awake-dreaming

May We All Receive The Healing We Need

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

Let It Blow Through by Maggie Wheeler

Music is medicine. Let’s sing, feel and heal together.

Where There is Grief

Sarah MacEwan - Singing Therapist