Sunday 20th March / From 11am to 2pm / Kaliwood, to celebrate Equinox, when day equals night in the journey of our earth around our sun, the balance of of our lives. Music wasour theme, as we invited all to come with music from our lives our own Desert Island Discs.
We gathered around a much needed fire and called the Directions to open our circle, then began our journey.
Kevin gave the context: most people have selected the music for their funerals, but what about music of our life? Here was our chance. Kevin and Rachel modeled the conversation.
KEVIN
– Speaking with the Angels by Mary Black. ‘This is a song about childhood innocence, about a parents hopes and fears for their children. I first heard it when I was 15, so it arrived in my life at the end of my childhood. But it’s also about my ex wife and the birth of our first child, our hopes and fears for him. It also speaks to me about my Irish heritage.
– Karma Chameleon – Culture Club. ‘This is a song about the fear of alienation and persecution that some people experience. For me it’s about my identity as a disabled person of being different and the fear of alienation that this creates. But the song is also abut conformity, and the alienation coming from the lack of conformity. The song reminds me that I have forged an independent path, true to my values: it celebrate who I am.
– The Time of my life by Bill Medley and Jenifer Warnes. ‘A song about love, companionship and friendship. It reflects my love for my ex wife as well as my friendship with the best man at his wedding, and all the love and relationships and friendships through my life. It speaks to me about the good times in my life. Yes, there are lows, but there are so many good times. If I’m feeling down, this is what I shall go to. And yes, this is what I want at my funeral!
RACHEL
– Puppet on a String by Sandy Shaw. ‘She was a heroine for me, she sang in her bare feet, and I imitated her liberation, to the shock of Mary, my beloved next door neighbour, who said as we walked into Dereham from 35 Quebec Road, ‘But people will think you are poor!’. Such mixed feelings then. The idea of being so poor I could not afford shoes, had not occurred to me. But I was adamant I was Sandy Shaw, and we walked into Dereham, I with bare feet. As Kevin reminded me, it represents freedom to me.
– Kal Ho Naa Ho by Shankar Ehsaan Loy (2003 Bollywood film)
‘To take me back to India, a land which changed my life, when I looked east, and felt that different way of seeing, and indeed being. I was more in my head before I went to India, and India took me to another places, heart (with buddhism, meditation and activism) and body (with yoga). It also represents my travelling life, and it could have been Ali Torre from Mali or Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, the album I played on the way to Istanbul overland.
– Richard Strauss Four Last Songs sung by Jessye Norman. Soul music, always moves me, stops me, speaks to me of something other.
After Barron Bigod cheese (yum) and fruit (sweet), we formed groups, exchanged the music of our lives, and some of us shared them afterwards, played on our very own International Space Wagon, Solar Powered, Space Disco. (Here’s the story of how it came into being)
Here are some of the songs I recall – please me know if i’ve forgotten any, somehow they did not save on my Spottify account.
Carnival of Animals No 12 the Fossils (Alison, reminding her of the delight of being with her grandchildren)
Blackberry smile (Kingsley, cruises, words…)
Old Dog Blue– Charlie Parr (Guy)
Good vibrations (Berti/Pippa)
Rambling Sailor by Bellowhead (Nikki)
Return to Innocence’ (Sarah)
Glory Days by Pulp /song from Miss Saigon (Theo)
Vincent Don McLean (Michael) – reminding him of Paris and Rachel – ah, lovely.
Finally at the end we found our own music, with instruments or voice, we closed our circle calling directions
To the East: air, dawn/sunrise, spring, new beginnings, birth, childhood
To the South: fire, midday, summer, adolescence, mind, transformation
To the West: water, adulthood, emotional body, letting go, community Qualities
To the North: earth, elder, spiritual body, being filled with the Divine.
The woodland sings when we all gather
For further information
Pear Tree 01986 899655 http://www.peartreefund.org
Sunset that Equinox night 2022.
Kinda Forest School 
