Your Heart Knows the Way Home: songs for death & dying (8-wk series)

In late January of 2018, I accompanied my 99-year old grandmother, Ann Rosalie Parker, in her dying process. For two weeks, I went between her hospital room in Delaware, Ohio, and the snowy woods behind her home where I let my mind wander. As I walked one day in the wintery trees, the song, "Your Heart Knows the Way Home" came to me:

Your heart knows the way home, your heart knows the way home.

Listen: the birds are singing, singing their freedom

The forest will speak to you in the silence.

This 8-week class will focus on songs for death & dying. We will sing songs that honor the threshold of death, and we will share stories of our own encouters with the loss of loved ones. We will ask:

What is your relationship to death and dying? What has loss taught you? How has accompanying loved ones in their dying process changed you?

Te will teach simple songs call-and-echo style; there will be time to learn songs and to share our hearts and voices with one another both in breakout groups and with the whole. My hope is that this space can be an intimate space to share, listen, and sing around the topic of death and dying. All of you is welcome -- your joy, grief, heartache... please come as you are.

*Limit to 12 participants*

Example flow :

-Settle in, welcome, grounding practice

-Opening song

-Group sharing or breakout groups with a prompt

-Singing with time after songs for sharing/reflection

-Closing circle & song // sharing // takeaways

Dates:

Feb 13

Feb 20

Feb 27

March 6

March 13

March 20

March 27

April 3

What to expect each week:

-Grounding and embodiment practices

-Somatic regulation through song

-Songs that focus on the theme of death & crossing the threshold

-Connection with an intimate group of people through both large group and breakout group sharing and listening

-Learning and practicing new songs

Payment:

$265-295; if finances are a barrier and you'd like to join, please reach out to me and let's see what we can work out!

Have questions? See the FAQ section below and if you still have wonderings, email [email protected]. I hope to gather with you soon.

About the facilitator:

Te Martin is a song-keeper and ritual artist. They were born on Ramaytush Ohlone land in san francisco and have been shaped by Ocean, Redwoods, circus arts, and theater games. They facilitate oral tradition singing classes and workshops that focus on song as a tool for collective liberation, somatic regulation, and ancestral connection. Te served as co-organizer of Thrive Street Choir in the san francisco bay area for six years, is a student of Gaelic song and the Irish bodhrán drum, is the founder of "Murmuration: A Sebastopol Community Choir" in sebastopol, california, and released their first professional music video and EP of original songs, "Water & Bones", in 2021.

Water & Bones: https://temartin.bandcamp.com/album/water-bones

Music Video:

FAQ

If I haven't had a close encounter with death or the loss of a loved one, can I still participate?

Of course. All are welcome. There is no expectation of experience with loss/death and you will always be welcome to share or pass when a prompt is invited.

Do I need to be a practiced singer to join?

Nope! Singers of all levels are welcome -- experienced, new, or anywhere in-between.

Will meetings be recorded?

Meetings will not be recorded this time, to honor the vulnerability of the content we will be sharing.

What if I need to miss a call?

Ideally, everyone can be there for the whole 8 weeks to hold our container together, but if you need to miss a class, it's not a problem.

How does singing together on Zoom work?

Because there is a delay on Zoom, we won't actually be able to hear each other singing together. Rather, I'll teach songs and others will stay muted while they sing with me. While it might seem a little unusual at first, my experience is that even over Zoom, the medicine of song and community carries through powerfully.

Will anyone else hear me sing?

Not if you don't want to! Most of the singing will happen with the group on mute (except for my voice). There will occasionally be times when I invite people who would like to to come off mute and sing but this is absolutely optional.

Event Venue

Online