Grieving

For Elizabeth

Sing Me Home

Grief & Healing

Grounding

let it wake

GRIEF SONG - feat. WREN PEOPLE
This song came through me as I lit a candle at my altar praying for a song to hold our communities in our deepest grief - from pre-covid unmetabolized sorrow to the compacted grief we have been holding in isolation over the past year. 
I can feel my Jewish ancestors on my tongue in these sounds and melody. I sent this song to one of my Jewish mentors asking him about what came through me and to tell me more cause it felt very Jewish. This is what he told me: “Ahlay! This song is a “nigun” (in Hebrew) translated as a “wordless melody.” They are very common in Ashkenazi tradition (which is my lineage) although there are wordless melodies from Jewish traditions all around the world. These songs come from a time in Jewish history when a lot of the people were lacking institutional knowledge and didn’t know the prayers and didn’t speak Hebrew because the institutions had been destroyed in the Cossack uprisings in the 17th century. It was at this time in Poland (where my ancestors are from) when a mystic healer came forward, Baal Shem Tov (the master of the good name) - and taught that the melody of the heart is more potent and more appreciated by spirit than any formal prayers or specific blessings that someone could learn in an institution.” I sat with my mouth wide open in awe for entire moments at everything he had just told me. 
SIDENOTE: In the Nigerian religion Yoruba, Oya is the orisha of winds, lightning, violent storms, death and rebirth - when I listen to this recording I can hear her name. 
And what is grief if not all of the above? Just whoa. 
 
phonetic sounds:
oh ayo
da-da-day-daiya-ya-ya | da-da-day-daiya-ya-ya
ohya
da-da-day-daiya-ya-ya | da-da-day-daiya-ya-ya
Ohya ohya
da-da-day-daiya-ya-ya | da-da-day-daiya-ya-ya

to hear more community songs by ahlay, visit: https://www.alexandrablakely.com/songlibrary

Grief Song

This song came in while sitting with the first gate of grief (as taught by Frances Weller in The Wild Edge of Sorrow - http://www.wisdombridge.net/the-wild-edge-of-sorrow.html):

Everything you love, you will lose - The Grief of Abandonment

---
This is a teaching track for community singing.

Lyrics:

Part 1:
I will allow my heart to be broken
I will allow this river to flow
I will allow my soul to be opened
Breath by breath, steady and slow
Breath by breath, steady and slow

Part 2:
Breath by breath, I grieve you
Breath by breath, I'll know
You will always be here
And I can let you go
Yes, I will let you go

Music and lyrics by Juliana Murphy

This song is intended to be shared freely and sung both individually and in community. If you plan to perform or record it with the intent to sell, please contact me for permission.

Breath By Breath - All Parts

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

We Choose To Live

Maybe It's Enough

Something deep within you is awakening
Let it wake
Let it wake

Sarah Lockwood's Album

Something Deep Within You

A three-part chant celebrating the gifts of the darkness.  Lyrics:  Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels.  Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above.
Dreaming darkness, dreaming light.  @ Big Bug Music.
This is now a video! Watch here....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OjQ_v7VtFI&ab_channel=BarbaraMcAfee

Jewels

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)

*for all the tender hearts <333*

hey, you're doin okay
it's gonna take time
it's gonna take time

the heart is a muscle contracting, expanding
feel the waves and learn the lessons
time, it's gonna take time

artwork by Tobe Fonseca

Lessons of the Heart

I really like that song and it hit me in the feelings when I played the game but it was missing something so I added some instruments to it to make it more epic. Hope you like it

<a href='https://theartistunion.com/tracks/74e42b'>Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

Detroit Become Human - Markus Sings Hold On With Instrumental by Zerownik

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

Sophia Efthimiou's Album

Deep into the earth I go - Tarisha

Simple Gifts : Amazing Grace

Evening Rise - Composer Unknown
Sung here in the key of B flat

As far as I can tell, this song is in the public domain. I have not been able to track down the composer. Please let me know if you have any information. 

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

An absolute favorite in my song circles and in my choir. The harmonies are hauntingly beautiful and easy enough to learn. It's very satisfying for everyone once they get all of the parts.

Evening Rise - All Parts - Key of B flat

lyrics: be easy, take your time, you are coming home to yourself, coming home to yourself. 
Based on a poem by Nayyirah Waheed

Be Easy

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

Artist: Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band 
I learned at Adamah (Jewish Farming Fellowship) in 2014.

Sung at a song circle on January 1, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Lyrics:
When the world is sick
Can't no one be well
But I dreamt we were all beautiful and strong

When The World Is Sick (Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band)

Artist: Miner
I learned this song at Let My People Sing 2019.

Sung at a song circle on September 15, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Part 1:
Let the wave wash over me
Let the wave wash over me
I am already under
Let the wave wash over me

Part 2:
There will be better days

**Photo credit: Sarah Snyder!

Let The Wave (Miner)

Vocal accompaniment and production by Baci Weiler

I will carry you through these changes
V'ad seva ani esbol
(When you turn grey, I'll still carry you/be patient with you/bear you) 
- Isaiah 46:4

(((It's odd to do this as a duet because to me, it's about learning to hold myself and have my own back, and sometimes feeling like the universe is holding me too.)))

I Will Carry You/V'ad Seva — Inspired by Isaiah 46:4

I wrote this song in the midst of shock and grief at the murder and loss of Gabrielle Gottlieb from the Romemu community and the world. She was a fan of my music and was kind whenever I saw her, asking my family about me, and watching. 

Gabrielle was a healer, an energy worker, a woman deeply aware of the power that lies in the body. She wasn’t just gentle, just kind— she was a warrior. Gabrielle was running in the last moments of her life, trusting her guts, trusting her body, and trying with all she had to find safety and freedom. Her loss remains a gaping hole in the world, and justice has still not been served. 

In this song, I keep in mind those in abusive relationships, those in unsafe homes, those parenting themselves in treacherous environments, and those whose traumas of abuse and sexual assault are bubbling to the surface in this time. I commit to working to create systems to address harm and create circles of love and care wherever I dwell. 

A word about trusting the body— as someone with a chronic disability, trusting my body completely is no simple task. My body needs a lot of help to keep working! If you’re singing this song and find that these words don’t sit right in the moment, I hope they might serve in other moments. And if not, I love you and see that pain. I wrote these words in deep gratitude to that thing that sits deep, deep within my body, under even the parts of my body that need help to function— that gut instinct that keeps me safe with all its might. 

Thank you to my partner Noam Lerman for joining me in song and strength!

Lyrics:

Days when I don’t trust my family
Days when I don’t trust my friends
I trust my body, deep down in my core 

Days when I don’t trust my leaders
Days when I don’t trust my teachers 
I trust my body, deep down in my core 

Days when I don’t trust my lover
Days when I don’t trust my God
I trust my body, deep down in my core

Oh my body, oy oy oy oy 
Oh my body oy oy oy oy
I trust my body, my shaking body
I trust my body, deep down in my core

Oh my body, oy oy oy oy 
Oh my body oy oy oy oy
I trust my body, my brilliant body 
I trust my body, deep down in my core 

Oh my body, oy oy oy oy 
Oh my body oy oy oy oy
I trust my body, down in my kishkes 
I trust my body, deep down in my core

I Trust My Body

https://thebirdsings.com/fall2020-playlist/

As I Relax - Lyndsey Scott

sung with sol yael weiss & ash berman

keep me, in the arms
of my beloved, oh g!d

planted where i stand
grounded by the land
carry me back to the sea
from dust to the dust again

perfect as i am
grounded by the land
carry me back to the sea
from dust to dust again

no matter where i go,
always keep me close
no matter where i go,
always keep me close

<3

keep me

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

Where There is Grief

Sarah MacEwan - Singing Therapist