Sacred Stories

This Friday I attend a workshop by Carrie Newcomer called, “Our Lives as Sacred Story + Community Songwriting.”  I will report back, of course, as the course is  very much in synch with what WLP is about.  I’m writing now as there is some trepidation about attending.  The person leading the workshop is someone I first met a lifetime ago when we were both young women with lives intertwined with men who we would be with for a while, but would both soon come to know we had to leave behind these men, through whose lives we met, if our lives were to grow toward the light.

I have seen her a few times since then for coffee, a quick meal, a walk in a park or along a stream, or a rare day long visit.  She is a rather well know singer and song writer.  Me, I am a women that few know who writes and tries to help other women write or capture their stories.  For me it is always daunting to see someone who has made her dreams come true with incredibly hard work, tenacity, persistence, and a whole lot of days and nights on the road.  It seems like a more difficult path than mine, but as we say these days, “she persisted.”   It would be relatively easy to say she is successful and I am not, but inside I know we are all successful in our own way, just as we all have our stories, sacred and tender that we have lived as we walk our path in life.

It is still a bit daunting for me, here I am signed up for the workshop yet I do not write music, or lyrics or songs.  Poems, yes.  So while I am a bit nervous about tomorrow, I am also very excited.   I want to see what women’s wisdom she has accumulated about the topic so I can share it with you.

The sacred, the place in our hearts where our precious aches and joys are felt and remembered, is not an place easily called upon for sharing, let alone easily evoked, yet Carrie writes words wrapped in music that open the hardest lithic hearts.  Her music calls out and lifts our better, light-filled, selves.

We all have these selves inside us.  Sharing our selves, sharing our sacred stories is a beautiful frame for living our legacies now, telling our stories, giving those stories as beautiful gifts of self whether they are songs, poems, acts of kindness and helping, or times spent with grandchildren at our knees.

You can find her touring schedule and  a few recordings and videos on her site at CarrieNewcomer.com.