Music As Prayer, Music As An Offering
It is said that playing music is like praying twice. Add that music has the potential to double the power of envisioning. Every musician should be playing for peace at this point in the world”
-John Shannon, guitarist/composer
Sometimes the noise of social media, the news, relationships, and financial obligations, can be overwhelming. Sometimes the struggles of day to day life can make it difficult to remember the healing power of music and art. Even with the best of intentions as a teacher and performer the muck of living can be distracting from what’s really important - why we choose creativity
For whatever reason my parents didn’t raise me with any specific religion. We didn’t go to church or temple or say grace before each meal. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays, and my mom was an enthusiast for all spiritual gatherings and religious traditions. A chance to gather, break bread, sing, pray in any form was universal to her. It didn’t belong to one group or text.
The main thing that was emphasized in my home growing up was creative expression of all kinds. Dancing in the morning, singing in the afternoon, listening to salsa in my dad’s pale yellow Ford as we rode over the Manhattan Bridge to school. Even in their 70s my parents continue to look for creative outlets and something new to learn that lights them up.
And light is crucial in this time of political/darkness. This last week and a half the news reports have grown only more horrific than the past months. I know family and close friends who are battling challenging court cases, add to that war, earthquakes, flooding and the day to day challenges of life, and it’s really not easy to sort out why anything matters.
However, this is when I’m reminded of the energy of music and what it does for a person and a community. Even when I watch a fictionalized funeral in a tv show and a person gets up to play a song at the piano, I feel how music helps us articulate pain and connection. Being a performer and also mentoring and teaching other performers I regularly see how music enables people to communicate things they might not have otherwise been able to because of differing opinions, language barriers or just the inability to express complicated emotions.
Next month on November 19th at 5pm I’m going to be sharing a bunch of songs at Rizzoli’s Bookstore in Manhattan. Some old and some new works inspired by my book. I hope that you will come out to support music that is alive, living and breathing and to also join minds and hearts to envision something better for this planet and humanity.