Music can open our hearts. Research has shown that music taps into different areas of the brain beyond that of language. What is harder to explain is the astonishing way in which it can deeply and personally move us -- shift us to a new awareness -- a moment of gratitude or sadness or triumph.   It is because of music’s capacity to peel away our tough layers -- to reveal our real thoughts and emotions -- that I began to bring its melodic poetry into my retreat workshops.  

Just as with any heart-centered endeavor, a song comes through me when I quiet my mind’s oftentimes endless chatter and allow a deeper wisdom to emerge.  I write songs to reflect what is present for me at that moment in time.  As a collection, they capture the duality of life -- the beauty and messiness; the cosmic and comic; what stirs and saddens.

In creating this arrangement of songs, I treated each song as though it were a being – alive with story and emotion.  I tried to listen to what the song was calling for in terms of tempo, instruments, harmonies, the feel and the flow.  Even to the very last moment as the song was mastered, I meditated on what I hoped each listener would experience as their ears and hearts received it.  I hope I got it right.  Only you can decide if I did.