When I discovered this style of music, I was fascinated. I really love the drums, and once had the opportunity to enjoy a healing session with a woman from New Zealand who used a very big skin drum to send energy into my body. Quite the experience, to have the vibration from the drums notes flow through my body clearing blockages. Thinking about it afterwards, I realized how important music is, the vibrations flow through our bodies without us realizing it for the most part, leaving us unaware of its effects. It was a short time later while living in Saskatchewan that I began to explore music from other cultures, curious about the effects. Listening to mainstream music can never be an option for me again.
I learned from the different jacket covers that I read while listening to this music, there is great discipline involved in order to play the Taiko drums. It takes great strength and endurance from the body, mind and lungs. There is a great deal of physical training, such as running up the mountain at first light. There is no denying the strain on the body as you watch this video which at one point allows us to see the man playing the larger drum in his exhaustion.
Another song discovered at the library in Saskatoon years ago. The words have always struck me when she says how she can feel her connection to her past slipping further and further away.
Even before I had reason to believe the family I grew up with was not mine by birth, this feeling of my past having slipped into a place difficult to retrieve was there. Like a dream, the whispers of the threads as you wake up letting go in those first moments of waking. But the feelings connected to those threads never left, the emotions of my troubled past have kept me connected to the truth, something this song echoes. I felt her lyrics spoke of an experience we both understood, although maybe not in the same way. The connection was there for me and I was grateful for the knowledge that someone else could relate some of what I feel.
So 2 totally unrelated themes in music….. or are the? I actually believe they are connected, the energy coming from both linked by the strength needed to share the music. Emotions openly displayed, both artists walking a different, but similar path of the heart.
The path of the heart…..what does that mean exactly? Well this is something I am learning to understand as I continue to walk my path here in Ecuador. It has been quite awhile since I have created a post for my blog, but I have been quite busy preparing for the filming of my documentary. The experience has taught me quite a bit about following this path of the heart, as I continue to see hearts pop up along the way. Even in my chocolate drops……
I pass this spot, which is just outside my cabin all the time, but only just noticed the heart on the day I took this photo. Kind of amazing really that we can pass something every day of our lives, but only notice it when we are ready to see it. I have learned that this is also true for how we view aspects of our lives, our perspective changing depending on what we choose to focus on during certain moments in our day. This allow us to see differently when we are ready to do so. I have always been fascinated by people and the way they think, how their process works for them. My path seems to be leading me to those who feel as I do, that a good life is meant for everyone. I hope my documentary will help in some small way.
The Angel 
The Angel ‘s wings 
Before I drew on it…
Sitting at the cafe looking out at Plaza de Ponchos, I was enjoying the sunshine coming through the window, sitting in peace as I watched the people across the street. I felt relaxed, enjoying the moments before I would have to be on my way. This is when I looked down at my coffee before taking a drink and I wondered why I had not noticed it before. Clear as can be was an Angel in my cup which is pretty amazing considering I had stirred the coffee, the image forming from the disturbance. As if that wasn’t enough of a gift, I then realized there was another shape becoming obvious – the wings formed a heart. Is that not incredible? How wonderful to see Angel wings are shaped like a heart, another indication of my path. I did not want to drink the coffee, I just stared at the image with a sense of wonderment at how spirit chooses to let me know I am indeed walking king my path of the heart by all that I am doing.
As I sat on a beach years ago listening to Pachebel’s amazing piece of music, as a storm was rolling in across the water, I could never have imagined this is where I would find myself. This thought struck me as I listened to the song on my ride home from Otavalo. Memories linked by sights, sounds, smells, remind you of where you were as the senses stir the thoughts connected in time. I was fascinated by the connection I just made as the bus rounded another corner and the Andes were displayed. Sitting on the beach that day, I was camping on a beach in the mountains of British Columbia. It was a feeling of two worlds merging into one as I realized how far I have travelled emotionally, spiritually and physically.
During that time of my life the moments of clarity, of individuality were fleeting. To be here in Ecuador in this moment, planning to have a documentary made, exposing my underbelly, is a giant, unexplainable leap from who I was back then.
Yet I am exactly the same person, with exactly the same motivation, the same understanding of who I am, my values and morals never changing in relation to what I was taught in my early years. I have not changed only allowed myself to exit the cage of my past to experience the freedom given to me at birth. Back then I was just not ready to see the truth, my perspective altering with life experiences. But that is only a shift in the mind; the soul or even the spirit never changed, only pieced itself back together. As my friend told me after reading my script; “Go ahead Gabriel, you are in the best moment of your life”.
Yes, with each bridge we cross into the truth of who we are, we are indeed in the best moment of our life. Everything we have done, everything we see and learn along the way shapes who we really are. It is an ever changing experience to acknowledge the roadsigns and realize we have passed them before without noticing. The gift is in accepting we were just not ready, as we take the first step into a new day.