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  Kathleen Hannan

Songs for Our Journey 48

8/28/2020

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There is a youtube recording of the composer, Carolyn McDade, leading this song here.  During 25 years of singing it, I have inadvertantly changed a note or two, and a bit of the timing, so please check this out for accuracy and to hear the feeling and timing of Carolyn leading the song.  

I learned this powerful and healing song at a workshop with Carolyn McDade in North Carolina many years ago...probably 1995 or thereabouts.  As I recall, the workshop consisted mostly of gathering around a piano and singing together for two or three days. A beautiful experience.  Carolyn told us the story of when this Serpent of Life song arrived.   She was at a meditation retreat on Cape Cod, and one day had not been comfortable sitting for a session. Instead Carolyn walked her meditation through the silence of a very foggy misty day.   I have a vivid memory of imagining the scrub oaks and pines of Cape Cod brushing her face, and that she could barely stay on the path, it was so hard to see the ground.  And suddenly she found herself singing this song, which arrived with no conscious work on her part. It came whole, out of the mist.  At least that's the way I remember it these 25 years later; but of course I was not there in the mist with her.  But that is the power of a story and a song!   To learn more about Carolyn's work in spiritual feminist community song, please check out her website.  I love moving as a snake or panther moves as I sing this song, and for me "her only garment" is fear. 

​I just found a recording of this song from 7 years ago, with Carolyn playing the keyboard and a group of women singing it.  I realize listening that I had made some errors in a couple of notes...I sang it for so many years, I can understand how that could happen. But do listen to these women if you'd like to hear the subtle difference in the notes from my recording.  The song is labeled 
Serpent Song on that recording, but I am keeping the name 
that I love for the song too.  


Serpent Song 
(Serpent of Life)
© Carolyn McDade

In the places that reek of impossiblity
The Serpent of Life coils
She crawls upon the swollen stone
Crawls upon the swollen stone
Crawls upon the swollen stone
And loosens her only garment
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Songs for Our Journey 47

8/18/2020

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This recording of Nur Julie Purcell's beautiful Love's Song
was made one evening at Bodies, Voices & Spirit Chorus.
​Love's Song
© Nur Julie Purcell

Ya Rachman    Ya Rahim  
The Sun and Moon of Love
 
Ya Ra-uf   Ya Rahim 
The deepest Love within
 
Ya Hayyo     Ya Quayuum 
Love is what remains
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Plum Fiesta Fabric Millefiori Heart by Meg Hannan
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Songs for Our Journey 46

8/13/2020

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Photo © Lorie Hollar
Lately with the pandemic and the other big changes in our country, impermanence has been on my mind quite a bit, as I am sure it is for many of us.  And reading the wonderful book In Love With The World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying by Tibetan Monk Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche for the second time, I am more in love than ever with a phrase he uses to describe impermanence:  the continuity of change.

Hearing the word "impermanence" my attention tends to go to what I don't want to lose.  With "continuity of change" we see the truth of the world....that life is a river of always new always new always new again. And Yongey Mingyur points out that it is in seeing the impermanence of every "thing", including our thoughts, emotions, and bodies, we can notice that which is not a thing.  That which does not change at all. The pristine empty awareness that is our true nature. I dedicate this song to the Buddhist tradition, and to Rinpoche Yongey Mingyur for the beautiful teachings he passes on in his book, especially that magical phrase, which I have of course included in the song.   
Die Before You Die
© K Hannan 2020
​Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu -  
Islamic phrase meaning Die Before You Die
La Illaha Il Allah - There is only one God, God


Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu
Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu
Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu
La Illaha Il Allah 
Mmmm Hmmm

Die before your body dies
Leave all thoughts about yourself behind
In silence watch the continuity of change
La Illaha Il Allah 
Mmmm Hmmm

La Illaha Il Allah
La Illaha Il Allah
La Illaha Il Allah
Die before you die
Die before you die
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Songs for Our Journey 45

8/6/2020

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The Tao Te Ching is my favorite book, and Stephen Mitchell's is my favorite translation.  There is no run-around with Lao Tzu. 
He goes straight to the essentials.  And of all his verses
​I think this one is my favorite; it sums up the truth so succinctly.


See The World As Yourself
lyrics Lao Tzu from translation by Stephen Mitchell
melody © K Hannan


See the world as yourself
Have faith in the way things are
See the world as yourself
Have faith in the way things are

Love the world as yourself
Love the world as yourself
Loving the world as you love Love itself

​See how you shine in everything
Now you can care for all things
Now you can care for all things
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" Kathleen makes music that makes community."  
The Independent Weekly, Durham, NC  

Contact Kathleen