Greetings MMC community!

Can I share a vision with you? 

The dream is “A Songleader in Every Family, Every Household”. 

That sounds pretty straight forward, but let me tell you how I'm defining songleader. 

I describe a songleader as a “collaborative ritual artist.” Let me break that down… 

• COLLABORATIVE = someone who shares leadership and responsibility 
• RITUAL = meaningful patterns and rhythms of communal life 
• ARTIST = Creator, tender with beauty, grace, creativity, and attention to process  

So a Songleader is one who shares the tending of a creative process of meaningful communal patterns and life rhythms with attention to beauty and grace.  

A collaborative ritual artist.

And if there's a collaborative ritual artist/songleader in every family…

Do you know what this means for spiritual communities?  There’s multiple song leaders in every community!

This brings me hope for small or rural spiritual communities like the one I grew up in, that are having a hard time finding an organist or pianist to play for worship services.  It also gives me hope that everyday people feel empowered to offer a song for any moment.  Any moment of pain. Any moment of hope.  To help us feel.  To connect us to our values and each other.  To mobilize us to act on each other's behalf.  To tend the community where we find ourselves. 

In this time of divisiveness, we need brave persons who can see our woundedness and our potential and call forth a song to weave us back into belonging.  We need ways to touch our pain and connect with our hope.  Sharing a song can level a playing field, reminding each of us of our dignity.  As Alexandra Blakely writes in her song Net of Remembrance, “Everyone feels and carries different parts of the story; and together we weave the net of remembrance; we are not made, not created to hold this all alone” (link to recording:  https://ahlayblakely.bandcamp.com/track/net-of-remembrance).

Are you ready to be a collaborative ritual artist?  Are you already a collaborative ritual artist?  Are you ready to support others becoming collaborative ritual artists?  

If you’re ready to become a collaborative ritual artist …

- Check out the workshop calendar section of the website and register for an event near you
- If there’s not one near you, start to find other collaborators who are interested in hosting or supporting a workshop with you.  Read the Host an Event page to get a sense of what needs to be organized. 
- Who are your mentor elders?  Who are your peers? Connect with others on the MMC FB group.
- What songs want to be carried by you?  Which songs do you want to carry? Have you reviewed the A-Z list on the website lately?
- Likewise, what spaces call to you?  What daily or life events (and everything in-between) draws your heart's attention? 

If you’re already a collaborative ritual artist …

- How is your satchel of songs? How do you tend your list? Where do you learn new songs? Where do you share your songs?
- Who are your collaborators?  Who are your elders and how are you honoring them?  And who are songleaders coming after you?  How are you encouraging their craft and practice?
- How’s your capacity? Are you in a place to expand where and how you collaborate?  
- Do we/I know who you are?  Let’s connect or re-connect, send a note to [email protected].  

If you’re ready to support others in their collaborative ritual artist journey … 

- In what ways can you organize spaces and events for others?  Are there organizations who connect people? Do you have a lead for a beautiful space that’s fun to sing in?
- Can you contribute a listening ear, a scholarship, airline miles, a meaningful story, or any wild number of various other goods and services to support MMC programming and operations?  Send a note to [email protected] with your offers and ideas.
- To be a little meta, are you in a place to help organize and make sense of all these interrelated pieces?  Maybe you’d like to consider being on the MMC Board of Trustees, who oversee the work of Music that Makes Community? If this excites you, drop a note to [email protected] with your interest!  

The community needs all sorts of people doing all sorts of things.  Your community needs you to listen and tend and be the collaborative ritual artist you can be, songleader or other.  You belong and you can be a vehicle for others to belong.  What will you contribute?  What will you receive?  

May we sing to weave us back together, to remember we are not made to hold this all alone.

Conie B.