Community Singing

About Our Bodies Hold Worlds: As I have the opportunity to work with many different groups strategizing around care and protection of the most vulnerable among us, there are always common foundational needs. First, spiritual grounding in an interfaith context. Most communities enthusiastically join hands across differences to support one another in this work. Regardless of what spiritual lineage we come from, or what stories and practices shape our life, a common vision moving us towards interdependence and solidarity emerges. Second, to be alive in this time, present to the needs in our communities, and conscious of the multiple world ending crisis we face together in our lifetimes, subjects us to ongoing existential stress. We need to build friendship and cultivate joy even as we work in dire times and circumstances. Finally, we must stay connected to our breath in order to stay present in our bodies, to ourselves and our world. A practice enfolding all of these things is community singing.

I am inspired and delighted to witness the growth and transformation of this ancient practice and so am honored to contribute to it with this offering of interfaith songs for community singing. These songs come from the practice of being present to ourselves in this time, the vulnerability of our world, and the people in it. They are born out of very specific places and people attending to very specific needs. May they be a balm to others, in their specific time and places, supporting the work of care and protecting the most vulnerable among us.

And to my dear friends and community who helped these songs emerge, not just those who were able to join the recording dates, but those who sang them in my living room or at churches or organizing trainings, thank you! May these songs serve to weave us together, to find our strength and power as we care for one another and continue to sing!

-Tracy Howe