Drum Circle - Valerie Fliss

I was reading the earlier posts about the drum circle, and felt a little obligated to do a posting about it of my own experience.

I, too, felt a bit of apprehension when we were supposed to take our shoes off and walk around on the ground, but that passed quickly once we actually started the drum circle. My favorite part of the whole experience, I think, had to be when we first started, and Kelly did that initial heart beat on his chest, and slowly everyone started in. I remember that my chest kind of froze up at first, and I was nervous that I was going to go off beat, that somehow I was going to mess it up, and for a moment I felt like I couldn't even breathe because I was so apprehensive. But then I did the heartbeat along with everyone else, and it was almost like I was using the rhythm to start my own heart up again (like one of those defibrillators! Clear! anyway...).

It was really interesting the way that everyone started to do the beat together, and when one person changed their rhythm just a little bit, the entire circle started to change in response. It really drives home the idea that art is meant to be a center of communion, with each other and then with nature/Divine/God/whatever you call it. Connecting together in that place, with those beats and instruments created something pretty good; those runners who applauded us when we were done thought it sounded good, at any rate, even though the music was completely unorganized and unplanned! The individual rhythms disappeared into one big rhythm, which was absorbed by all of the rhythms of the waves, and the wind, and the setting sun. That was all part of the community of the drum circle as well.