Laura's Chapel
THE MYSTERY IS CALLING
What Are We Doing?
We are making a SONG OFFERING to the Oak Grove.
We have prepared these songs over many weeks, filling them with joy and beauty and heart. The entire process has been a way to connect with each other and with all the beings around us as we sing outdoors.
Now we have brought them here as a gift to the Oak trees, the insects, the worms and snails, and the humans like you who are part of this setting.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
• You can receive the songs as part of the grove. Hang out with the trees and critters and take in the music and the heartfelt intention of what we are doing.
• You can join in with us as you feel moved. Sing along, stand with us, move with us, speak when there is an invitation.
• You can respect and appreciate what we are doing by not interfering, by applauding if you are so moved or showing your appreciation in other ways.
• You can learn more about the songs by reading below and following the links when you have time later to listen.
About the Songs
These songs come from the Community Singing movement. The Free Range Singers and director Laura Sandage are part of the Ubuntu Choirs Network, an international community of people (mostly in Canada and the US) who sing together for joy and connection. Another network is the Natural Voice Network in the UK. Many songs shared in these communities can be found online, in resources such as this one: Lisa Littlebird's Online Song Library.
Lyrics and Credits
Laura Sandage, Davis, CA
Oh, the Beauty
Oh, the Beauty 3x
Bowing down, bowing down before you
Oh, the Forest 3x
On our knees, on our knees before you
Oh, the Oak trees 3x
Carry us, carry us along with you
Sarina Partridge, Minneapolis, MN
Listen
I will bow my head to this beauty
I will fill my song with you, oh, forest
I will sink to my knees at the feet of the trees
And listen, I will listen
Anna Richardson, River Jones, and Oran Ash of the Children's Forest Movement in England
CHORUS:
Oak, oak, oak of old
King of trees in your crown of gold
You are the door to worlds unseen
In winter bare and in summer green
VERSES:
1. Five hundred years to grow and thrive
Five hundred more to remain alive
Shelter for all throughout your reign
And many thousand lives sustain
2. Your roots grow deep, your heart so strong
Power of the sun to you belongs
Generous to all as king you stand
In strength and peace you guard this land
3. From gold to green and gold once more
Your leaves will turn before they fall
When twice you've worn your golden crown
Each season's harvest comes tumbling down
(VERSE 4 lyrics by Alison Berry of Davis)
4. Your living roots in soil abound
A web of life giving to the ground
From forest oak to microbe small
The microbiome joins us all
Helen Yeomans, Bristol, UK
Unto this land my heart I seal
To always love and cherish as my own
And through my veins her crystal waters flow
To the ocean of my soul
Unto this land I shall return
When all my days upon this earth are done
And in her arms I'll lay my body down
And my heart will find its home
Heidi Ann Wilson, Vermont
Go Slowly
The Sun Is Our Star
Go slowly, slowly
Slowly orbit over the soil
Building a spiral of time on your back
Days into seasons to years
You carry a galaxy, so go slowly...
~also by Heidi Ann Wilson~
The sun is our star (4x)
How we turn and twist and reach for you
How we open every leaf to you
With a fierce and fiery love for us
You would burn it to the ground for us
We turn and turn around you
We turn and turn
Alexa Sunshine Rose, Port Townsend, Washington
We are created by sound
We are created by the song of the universe (repeat)
Singing with the trees
Singing with the song of the universe
Singing with the whales
Singing with the honeybees
All creation sings (repeat)
Margaret Miles, Berkeley, CA
My massive trunk sprang from a pod smaller than a human hand
Fed by mist and sun, I'm connected both to sky and land
I shelter and I feed you, create your very air
Pollinators learn my messages, returning every year
CHORUS:
Years pass, our grown is silent and unseen
We are the inscrutable Generosity of Green
Your lives flit by in just a blink, like petals on the breeze
We the silent sentinels exist for centuries
Nourished by our ancestors whom the first people beheld
The many miracles that Green devise cease when we are felled
CHORUS
All growing things alone disclose the wordless mind of God (4x)
You behold our branches, but you never see us whole
You dwell onon the surface; You cannot glimpse our soul
A network of filaments, there is as much of us below
Our roots are our community, where our spirits ever grow
CHORUS (2x)
Heidi Ann Wilson, Vermont
Limber Dancer
Have you seen the swaying of the white pine
Praying in a wild wind?
Limbs up lifted to the sky
Limber dancer on high
Kira Seto, Bend, Oregon
Bumblebee Waltz
Bumblebee, bumblebee, bumblebee, I see you pollinating
I feel your love; I see you pollinating
Floating from flower to flower, spreading all your love
Pollen, nectar, ancient love
Katy Rose Bennett, Birmingham, UK
Yoy yoy yoy . . .
Trees give me strength
Oh, trees give me strength
I am weary, I am worn down
I am lonely, help me turn this around
Trees give me strength
Oh, trees give me strength
I am holey, I am burned out
I'm bewildered how my whole life turned out
When the shadows in my mind are growing
Still a spark behind my eyes, the dark is rising fast
I will fly into your arms, my friend
To touch your skin
And I'll begin to mend
Trees give me strength
Oh, trees give me strength
Iam guilty, I am gone astray
I'm a vagabond, how they've cast me away
When the shadows in my mind are growing
Still a spark behind my eyes, the dark is rising fast
I will fly into your arms, my friend
To touch your skin
And I'll begin to mend
Yoy yoy yoy . . .
Trees . . . Oh, trees . . .
Mo Washburn, Sebastopol, CA
I believe
That I belong
To the Earth
I belong
May my life
Be a song
May my song
Feed the Earth