Leah and Allannah invited us to come to the gathering with such beauty, warmth and compassion that a sacred space was created immediately.
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a hundred times.
Come, yet again, come, come.
89 wanderers and worshipers had gathered to listen to the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz, accompanied by the voices, piano and cello of Leah Hokanson and Allannah Dow.
Silent meditation was agreed on as the way to hold the beauty between the poems, as clapping felt awkward and discordant. The contemplative space not only allowed the beauty to quietly circle the room, but created an opening for the the next poem to take us away once again.
One of my favorite pieces was when Leah asked us to speak Rumi’s words:
Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. When the ocean is
searching for you, don’t walk into the language-river.
Listen to the ocean, and bring your talky business to an end
With the accompaniment of the piano and cello, the spoken voices began to sound like the waves and breath of the ocean itself; the piano and cello rising and turning to wild crashing waves, then settling again to that still, quietly breathing ocean.
Thank you Leah and Allannah, and the 89 others who were there, for creating and holding this sacred space so beautifully on a Sunday afternoon. I think the best comment I heard after the show was “I felt like I just had a soul massage”.
Event Review by Colleen McCarthy
