Summary of FEBRUARY MEETING
Our fifth “Deep Listening in Central Florida” meeting – and our first with the new time slot: Third Wednesdays from 7pm to 9 pm.
We began our meeting with introductions and performing “TUNE-UP (LISTENING OUT LOUD) by Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros.
TUNE-UP (LISTENING OUT LOUD)
Inhale Deeply
Exhale Singing A Note Of Your Choice.
Listen To The Sounds Around You And Match Your Next Note To One Of Them.
On Your Next Breath, Make A Note No-One Else Is Making.
Repeat.
We then left the hall and walked to Wade Park where Martin Schiff led us in a gentle Tai Chi warmup under a cone of light from a lamp post. After about 15 minutes, we began our first traditional form.
It was a gorgeous evening, with the sounds of a distant Boone High School game filling the air with fascinating sounds and brilliant reflections. I decided to move the group to nearby picnic tables, where we practiced listening skills with perceptual cognizance and imagination. This group, half new to DL, was warmly communicative, easily sharing their insights, surprises, and blockages.
After about 25 minutes, we walked back to the White House and into the ADM-enhanced main room stage where we performed “Entwining 1” by Martine Thomas, one of our favorites.
The highlight of our evening (we all later agreed) was our performance of the DL piece “The branches of any tree.” We moved back into the sweet spring night on the patio outside the house and sat on the chairs under one of the trees. Those who brought instruments got them out, and a few grabbed other instruments made available to us.
The combination of voices, Thunder Drum, Ocean Drum, Violin, Saxophone, acoustic guitar and Digiridoo made a coherent, expressive sound as we collectively reacted to every shape, color, vector and twist of the tree from its trunk to its leaves along the nearest branch. This experience lasted about 30 minutes and ended only when we felt it had completed, together.
We ended meeting #5 with a beautiful discussion about our dreams, dream symbols, dreamscapes.
There are no audio recordings from this meeting.