dance – Jules P Richards

I commented on “worship” last October: taking a bath the interaction between things is what make them…

I recently saw someone comment that they “NEED to worship God”, that when they begin to worship “something happens within me… natural selfishness gets kicked out the back door and my heart* opens up to the transforming, powerful, grace-filled-love* of God*. …it reminds me… that all of the responsibilities and struggles I take on are in his-hands*, and that I can trust him to walk-with-me* and not abandon me, to give me the words and the strength. …to remember the love-he-has-for-me*, to be open to the work of the Holy-Spirit* and to remind myself that he is that centre. Worship helps me to know that I-am-loved*, and it sets me free to love others, and to see the grace-of-God* at work in the world around me.”

They commented: “so often in discussions about worship we have a tendency to make worship about us and not about God. …it is important that we don’t forget what it is for and who it is about. In worship God becomes greater and I-become-less*… I need to worship!”

(I have concerns with some of these * notions)

My admittedly imperfect perspective might be as follows:
I need to worship (to adore, revere, respect, devote, admire, venerate, celebrate?) the thing /notion/sense/power(?) that is bigger than us all”.
When I recognise the reality of otherness and possibilities, it helps to refocus on the bigger picture and review perspectives, attitudes and opinions in a fresh way.
To repeatedly recognise the fabula (story) of ‘life’, and reappraise the sjužet (discourse, perspectives, attitudes, opinions – interaction) can enrich the poor, liven the dead, and can make the blind see.
To review the selfishness that often hinders creativity and open up to the transforming, power of reconsideration.
Life is limited but the clouds move.
This worship reminds me that I am relevant in daily the interaction and it sets me free to let others be.
Worship is about us as part of the fabula and yes, it is important that we don’t forget our place in things.
In worship, life becomes greater and we become more real… we need to worship!”

(None of this considers the euphoria, endorphins and satisfaction induced by standing and singing etc – that’s another topic.)

Don’t listen to the words, listen to the…

Hummm… nowt sp’cific to say… however…

We’ve started back with Global Harmony this week, which will be my 4th year with them – time flies.
What I enjoy about GH is the ‘expressive’ experience – ‘meaning’ comes later. This idea sort of harmonises with my recent encounters with ‘awareness‘ etc. Drop the baggage and dance dude!

I enjoy much of the eclectic offerings from BBC Radio 3’s ‘Late Junction’, I enjoy the ‘hopelandic’ non-language of Sigur Róss, and find some of Bugge Wesseltoft’s musical language enchanting(?)…
I guess it’s the sound/s, rhythms and unorthodox mixes and ideas/feelings that they evoke… yes, it’s hard to drop cultural accretions but music or “new sounds” can be a start to ‘something new’.

The ‘world sounds’ that GH choir ‘play with’ are a breath of fresh-air in the polluted saturated world of signification that we encounter daily… the harmonies, resonances and layering that the MD introduces really do have something even though no meaning us readily clear to us. I find this is possibly more often encountered in rehearsals than in scheduled performance – pressure related i guess. Often the sounds are hypnotic and the parts really dance with each other.

I’ve always been interested in the idea of ‘free play’ as the creative tool and perhaps the choir, although structured, touches on this. We definitely experience ‘free’dom and also ‘play’(dom).

Bring it on?