lo que necesitamos para la paz - what we need for peace
This episode references mass shootings and other violence, but does not share details. This is my heart talking to yours.
I heard about the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School's church in Minneapolis today (Wednesday August 26, 2025). I have been preparing episode one, which is about that which reflects us, protects us, and connects us to everything (paraphrasing Dar Williams). There are rivers and waterfalls and singing and talk of spiritual practice.
Today, my practice was to pause and sing and talk with you. I sing "Canta Pajarillo," a movement song from South America taught to me and others by Eleuthera Diconca-Lippert, a beautiful human and musician from Montreal by way of Uruguay.
We need one another. As the song says, we are beings of hope in times of violence. The music of our collective voice is what we need for peace.
Leave me a voice memo or text at 404-907-3414 if you want to answer the questions I ask in this episode, and I will share your voice or words with your permission!
Buy me a tea / support my music- memberships available!
keywords: music and spirituality, freedom and peace, collective compassion, true care in community, violence, healing through music, connections with ancestors, rituals for mourning, hope in times of violence, sacred connections, defining true care, music as a healing practice, liberation through music, spiritual direction, activism, community over consumerism, breath and spirit, embracing the unknown, honoring sacred time, voices of hope in crisis
Transcript
La musica de nues travos es lo que nesitajarillo.
Speaker A:Sing, little bird.
Speaker A:Birds are such a symbol of freedom and peace and justice.
Speaker A:I'm recording this extra episode before I release episode one.
Speaker A:Upon hearing about more children dying in Minneapolis today and many wounded at Annunciation Catholic School.
Speaker A:And children are dying every day, every day in Gaza, every day in Ukraine, every day in places that we don't even know.
Speaker A:And so this is not a performative sadness, but when it is close to me, because I have friends who are also spiritual directors and ministers and queer moms in Minneapolis, it is that much closer.
Speaker A:But may we gather our compassion to know that all of this killing is too close and that all that violence and war do are create more violence.
Speaker A:They do not get us to any goal worth having.
Speaker A:They are not worth any cost.
Speaker A:Recording is somewhat spliced together because I'm just talking to you all like I talk to spirit, because we are spirit to me.
Speaker A:We are the collective.
Speaker A:We are the ones we are waiting for.
Speaker A:We are going to set ourselves free.
Speaker A:We are the ones we've been waiting for.
Speaker A:Poet activist June Jordan.
Speaker A:They were killed.
Speaker A:The shooting started during Mass, during a holy time.
Speaker A:I am not Catholic.
Speaker A:I am not Christian.
Speaker A:I am not a practicing Jew.
Speaker A:I am not a monotheistic person.
Speaker A:My spirituality is about how we live in the present.
Speaker A:Of course, that is true for some people who are monotheistic, too, who believe in one God.
Speaker A:My spirituality is about mystery.
Speaker A:My spirituality is about the holy, holy possibility of all of us getting free because we can do that for one another.
Speaker A:We have that power.
Speaker A:My spirituality is an honoring of ancestors and an embrace of the unknown, which is not always easy.
Speaker A:And yet I can hold that.
Speaker A:Though I don't have the same beliefs as those who were praying in singing in Mass today in Minneapolis.
Speaker A:For them to be killed, for them to be attacked during a time when they are connected to that which is most sacred, it doesn't make the killing worse than other killings.
Speaker A:No killing is okay.
Speaker A:But it does hurt in a particular way.
Speaker A:Because spirituality, whatever that word means to you, inspire spirit.
Speaker A:Spirit is breath.
Speaker A:Ha means spirit breath in the native Hawaiian language.
Speaker A:Like breath is such a part of it.
Speaker A:That's where the word spirit comes from.
Speaker A:Our most sacred sense and experience of energy that gives us life.
Speaker A:When we connect with that intentionally, that is sacred time.
Speaker A:Whether we are feeding people, lighting candles and remembering our ancestors, singing in some kind of worship, calling the directions.
Speaker A:It is a human thing to connect with that which is most sacred.
Speaker A:So what is sacred to you?
Speaker A:What is holy to you?
Speaker A:What is most important to you?
Speaker A:What gives your life meaning and how do you connect with that?
Speaker A:That is what my work as a musician and a spiritual director are about.
Speaker A:And I hope to be connecting with all of you in times of joy and celebration, as well as times of mourning and rage and other rituals that we need to get through this life together.
Speaker A:We need to be better at care than killing.
Speaker A:We need to be better at community than at consumerism.
Speaker A:We need to be better.
Speaker A:We are already good.
Speaker A:We need to practice true care.
Speaker A:What does that mean?
Speaker A:What is true care?
Speaker A:Talk to me.
Speaker A:Let me know what you think true care is.
Speaker A:And maybe some of your voices will be featured in the next episode.
Speaker A:Feel free to send me a voice memo telling me what true care is to you and what we need to be beings of hope in times of violence.
Speaker A:That song Cantapajarillo is from Central and South America.
Speaker A:I want to say it's from Colombia, but I'm not sure.
Speaker A:It was taught to me by a dear friend and musician and I believe she learned it in Guatemala.
Speaker A:But the whole song is.
Speaker A:Sing little bird, estesamilado.
Speaker A:Even though you're not at my side.
Speaker A:Somos serres desperance.
Speaker A:We are beings of hope in times of violence.
Speaker A:La musica de nuestra vos es do que necesitamos para la paz.
Speaker A:The music of our voice is what we need for peace.
Speaker A:Music isn't just entertainment.
Speaker A:It's not just an idea.
Speaker A:It is a deep and old practice.
Speaker A:Let us sing ourselves into deep care and and a vision of justice and liberation for all.
Speaker A:I will talk to you later.
Speaker A:Beloved singers and beautiful beings.
Speaker B:Your light is growing.
Speaker B:Our light.
Speaker B:Your love is growing.
Speaker B:Our love.
Speaker B:Your heart is growing.
Speaker B:Our hearts, your life is growing alive.
Speaker B:You shine so bright.
Speaker B:Your spirit shines.
Speaker B:Your voice.
Speaker B:Your smile stretches to your eyes than mine.
Speaker B:You are a light shining in this world.
Speaker B:I wonder where you came from and I know, I know.
