A Solstice Songbook
These past weeks have been a time of intense spiritual and emotional process for me, and I have been looking inward more than focusing outward. So no long essays about paradigms and the nature of reality and the reality of nature this month :-).
Elza and I have been putting together a list of songs that evoke a sense of wonder or a feeling of connection or belonging, that we want to sing with friends or play more often. Two years ago on the solstice I shared “Hymns for an Ecological Spirituality”, which featured five such songs with lyrics and a story weaving them together. This is a longer collection, with just a brief description and video link for each.
The list naturally represents our musical tastes - fairly heavy on folk songs and light on everything else - and I encourage readers to add more songs to the list in the comments.
Unseen Song - Samara Jade
My current favorite song and affirming anthem through a time of self-discovery and reintegration, I can’t stop singing it.
I listened to the silence till it was no longer silence, till it was filled up with birdsong that had been there all along…
For those local to my area, Samara will be in Eugene on Jan. 12 as part of the band Three Wheels Turning.
Turning Toward the Morning - Gordon Bok
A beautiful song for the dark of the year, finding beauty in the winter and looking toward longer and warmer days ahead.
Peace of Wild Things - Malcolm Dalglish
A Wendell Berry poem set to music.
When despair for the world grows in me
And I wake in the night at the least sound
In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be.
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests
In his beauty on the water
And the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water
And feel above me the day-blind stars
Waiting with their light.
For a time, I rest
In the grace of the world
And am free.
I sang this version with an a cappella group in my college days and am hoping to be able to sing it with a group again soon. There are only a few versions online, and I like this one by a little unpretentious ensemble more than the professional, pitch-perfect version that seems a bit too crisp and conducted.
Follow the Heron - Karine Polwart
A beautiful song that is perhaps more oriented to springtime but that belongs in this collection.
By night and day we'll sport and we'll play
And delight as the dawn dances over the bay
Sleep blows the breath of the morning away
And we follow the heron home
Birds of Passage - Breabach
A poignant contrast between the freedom of bird migrations and the peril of human migrations, gently questioning the control we humans seek to impose.
A timeless symphony
No border lines they see
And above on wings of grace
Swift birds of passage gather peace
As they rise, as they delight
Bright birds of passage wing their flight.
Into the Fire - Anna Fritz
A powerful prayer and affirmation, this is an easy song to sing and harmonize with, repeating over and over as long as it feels meaningful.
Take this heaviness from my heart
Throw it into the fire
Let me learn to be joyful
Lift my soul up higher
Lots more (with video links):
The first five are featured in Hymns for an Ecological Spirituality
Rivers Run - Karine Polwart
Gentle Arms of Eden - Dave Carter
Napeequa - Ed Stone
The Buffalo Song - Ed Stone
The Lost Words Blessing - Karine Polwart and others
Roll to the River - Cindy Kallet
The Eagle and the Hawk - John Denver
Ring Around the Moon - Elephant Revival
Wise One - Gothard Sisters
To the Birds - Samara Jade
Oak - Kris Drever
Blue Boat Home - Peter Mayer
And if you need to break into ecstatic dance on the longest night, I recommend this joyful jam:
Have a blessed Solstice everyone!