The Levins at Milford Arts Council / Performance Coffeehouse

I headed out of town (or at least, a little further afield than normal) for a performance by The Levins, at Milford Arts Council's Performance Coffeehouse.

I first encountered Ira and Julia (The Levins) at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival last summer; they were one of the Emerging Artists. As has been my habit, I picked up the latest album (in digital format) for as many of the Emerging Artists as I could, pre-fest, and their My Friend Hafiz album (based on the poetry of the 14th century Persian mystic) really resonated. I subsequently contributed to their crowd-sourced new album, Trust, and have been patiently waiting for them to come to town.

Their music, as recorded and compiled, hit me right in the nexus of yoga teacher, enlightenment intensive attendee, spiritual seeker: positive, thoughtful, searching, expansive. Both My Friend Hafiz and Trust show up regularly in my "pre-class, set the mood" music rotation for yoga classes. 

So I was pretty much ready to enjoy the show, expecting a few hours of gentle, spiritual music with wonderful harmonies.

But oh, so surprising, these Levins. There was romance; unlike many musical couples, the affection, nay, love these two carry for each other is palpable and transmitted through their songs and performance, with very sweet love songs. There was humor - a rollicking ode to Charles Dickens; a nod to ethnic folk (More Yiddish!), there were beloved kids songs I have not heard in years, there were some standards. Ira in particular, seems like he might take a crack at just about any topic as a song-writer and any song as a performer, and they individually and collectively have the chops to pull it off.

They are, quite simply, a delightful addition to my folk music family, and I'm a professed fan (and possibly stalker, depending on how many shows I catch them at in the coming months)

They're playing the upcoming Hartfolk Festival on May 30 (alas, I shall be at yoga teacher training all weekend, sad because pretty much everyone on the bill are artists I have seen and love), but also Kripalu on May 2 and a house concert on  May 22. And (can we actually be thinking this far ahead?) opening for Brother Sun at the Sounding Board on Sept 26 (making that a "can't miss" night). Visit their website for their touring dates - they work a lot!

The Milford Art's Council's Performance Coffeehouse is also a little gem. Not that well attended (most of the house seemed to be regulars) and with a roster for 2014-2015 that is pretty much unknown to me. The space is an old Metro-North station, with a very high ceiling and formal stage - suited for small plays, cabaret, etc. The sound was very good (I believe The Levins brought their own) and the lighting was two cuts above the typical folk show.

Holding Space

This is such an amazing blog posting from Heather Platt: What it means to “hold space” for people, plus eight tips on how to do it well

I've been assisting at the yoga studio teacher training for the past six years - we're two months into the class of 2015. And during that time, I've heard the term "holding space" for ones students; I've been told that I "hold space" well, I've witnessed miraculous transformations and transitions through the "holding space" of my teacher, Barbara, the training she has developed, and the staff she has gathered around her.

But the concept of holding space has always been somewhat fuzzy or amorphous - what I have picked up over the years has been through role modeling, watching and learning, and perhaps some innate or natural tendencies / habits. So this posting and list are a wonderful attempt to quantify this important skill.

A few thoughts based on this list, from my own experiences:

1. Give people permission to trust their own intuition and wisdom.
   One of the biggest issues in yoga communities is the guru-student relationship, how that is often abused, and how it sometimes stunts the growth of the student who cannot hear his/her own voice over the admonitions and instructions of the teacher.
   
2. Give people only as much information as they can handle.
   "You can't handle the truth!" - how often we come across students whose struggle and root cause may seem perfectly clear (to us) and are tempted to share that with them, or push them in a certain path or direction - it takes a lot of internal strength and wisdom to let them figure it out on their own.
3. Don’t take their power away.
   It's always kind of terrifying when folks who I have known as "teacher trainees" begin to blossom into their own power - that "you are not worthy" voice within me calls out and it would be so easy to cut them down to assure that I keep my place in the order of things. How many gurus or teachers, afraid of losing their own power, keep their students pot bound and dependent.
4. Keep your own ego out of it.
   On the surface, there's that "I am so freaking amazing" vibe that some of us seem to exude from our pores. But down deeper, there's our own struggle, grief, fragility that can get in the way of being of service. It's a weird trick - to be solid and real, authentically ourselves, and yet to not present our students with our own rough edges for them to get caught on or cling to. 
5. Make them feel safe enough to fail.
   First and foremost, by being honest about our own failures and limitations. By presenting challenges and goals that are attainable, but not assured. And by making the journey the goal, not the destination.
6. Give guidance and help with humility and thoughtfulness.
   "We have no right to take another out of denial" - one of our training mantras. If someone asks, answer with gentleness and consideration. But taking inventory of another's issues or struggle, suggesting cures or resolutions that are unsolicited, or having a library of platitudes or rote answers is not helpful.
   
7. Create a container for complex emotions, fear, trauma, etc.
   We have a saying around our studio "losing it on the mat" - every so often, one of us (and it has surely happened to me) will just start to weep, or be overcome with exhaustion, or pull down into child's pose. In the training program, we're often stepping in to lead another trainee away, who may be offering tissues or contact or trying to make someone smile to assuage their own discomfort with anger, with grief, with pain. Sitting with an individual who is releasing deep emotion, without trying to fix it, or make it better, or making it look good, is perhaps the most important thing I do.
8. Allow them to make different decisions and to have different experiences than you would.
   My teacher has so much wisdom and so much life lessons learned - and to this day I marvel that I (who ignore a lot of what she says, and sit in my own struggle so often) am valued by her, am given an opportunity to contribute.  

If You Do This, I WIll Own You Forever

The voice Paul Watson heard in his head as he took the Pultizer Prize winning photograph of a US Army ranger's body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
Terry Gross interviews him today on Fresh Air.

Back at the time, the incident created a visceral rage in me - that we humans could treat each other so cruelly. I wrote a mostly forgettable song about the incident called "Three Times Round the City" - comparing the incident to Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the city of Troy.

From the interview, it sounds as if by witnessing this, and taking the photograph, Paul Watson has indeed been owned forever. Another article, in the Ottawa Citizen, called The Haunting of Paul Watson, is also informative.

Powerful radio. A powerful story of a man's struggle to reclaim his soul.

Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith

An article in Time magazine, online here.

A new book, by Mother Teresa's postulator - Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, has some pretty incredible revelations. In short, "...for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever - or, as the book's compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist."

Wow. As a seeker myself this is haunting, and quite beautiful. It is one thing to be touched by the divine and to toil in the glow of certainty. To have lived the life she lived with such doubts, such yearning.....

Definitely on my reading list....