Amanda DeSalme-Drum Circle

I know it's been a little while since we did the drum circle at the Lion's Bridge, but I wanted to write a little bit about the experience. It was the perfect day for it. I got swept up in the beauty of the whole experience. At one point while we were drumming I looked up and the sun was setting on top of the water. It was gorgeous. It was as if I was more in touch with my surroundings by performing this ritual. I noticed flocks of birds flying above us; I felt the cold solid earth beneathe my bare feet. The music was like a conversation between all of us in that circle without words. Rhythms played off of eachother and complimented each other and so did the tonal instruments. I felt very moved and in general just more aware of the moment. My senses were brimming with an altertness that I do not employ in my everyday life. I think sometimes we get bogged down with routines of classes and work and things to do that we forget to enjoy every aspect of whatever it is we are doing. It takes events like this to wake us up and jostle our awareness of our senses back to life. We are constantly seeing, smelling, feeling, hearing things but our brains tend to block a lot of it out. When you embrace all of your senses it is invigorating and refreshing. I wonder why I am not that aware everyday of my life. I think another moving part was near the end of the drumming, when we all started to use our voices, still without words...but it felt so good to just shout out a primal explanation. And we all shouted together which made us all feel so unified in the experience. It was really wonderful and definitely spiritual. I can see now why people can really get into things like drum circles. It made it seem even more sacred with the ritual of walking around the circle before and afterwards, signifying the power of the experience we were about to or just had partaken of. improvised music is a powerful way to access something spiritual. I think that is why I gravitate towards jazz a lot as a musician, because improvisation is so freeing and a great way to be creative and connected with the other musicians you are playing with and aware of the moment and what your body can do with that moment. Improvisation has got to be one of my favorite kinds of music. Just because of the state of awareness that you have to be in to make anything out of it. This has been a post full of run-on sentences and babbling so I hope it could be understood, I kind of just needed to blurt out all of the things I felt and thought about it. so, hurray for senses and awareness connecting us to the wholly other! hurray for drum circles! :)