April 23, 2024 • 51 mins
What is your Earth Archetype? Take the Quiz!
In this conversation, Amber connects with elder, song carrier, and grief tender Laurence Cole. Like a fine 80 year old wine, his complexity extends beyond any one Earth Archetype.
In Laurence’s own words, “I have had one abiding thread of interest throughout my life; that is, when, where and how have human beings lived in a respectful, sacred, equitable relationship with each other and the rest of nature, and what arts and practices enabled them to do so and transmit such attitudes and behaviors to the coming generations.”
With an almost ASMR quality, listen in for both the importance and the technologies of belonging and connection. (Hint: this does not have anything to do with social media). In fact, all 4 technologies can be done with just the human body. As you’ll soon hear, tapping into ancestral wisdom definitely helps too.
Then delve into the power of rituals, the role of witnessing in creating a sense of community, and reciprocal relationship. You are even welcome to join Laurence in song throughout the episode as we build a container to hold each other well.
______
If you like this episode, listen to how the Earth Archetypes came to be. Check it out right here.
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Check out the Website
Take the What is Your Earth Archetype? Quiz
Follow Earth Archetypes on Instagram
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In this conversation, Amber connects with elder, song carrier, and grief tender Laurence Cole. Like a fine 80 year old wine, his complexity extends beyond any one Earth Archetype.
In Laurence’s own words, “I have had one abiding thread of interest throughout my life; that is, when, where and how have human beings lived in a respectful, sacred, equitable relationship with each other and the rest of nature, and what arts and practices enabled them to do so and transmit such attitudes and behaviors to the coming generations.”
With an almost ASMR quality, listen in for both the importance and the technologies of belonging and connection. (Hint: this does not have anything to do with social media). In fact, all 4 technologies can be done with just the human body. As you’ll soon hear, tapping into ancestral wisdom definitely helps too.
Then delve into the power of rituals, the role of witnessing in creating a sense of community, and reciprocal relationship. You are even welcome to join Laurence in song throughout the episode as we build a container to hold each other well.
______
If you like this episode, listen to how the Earth Archetypes came to be. Check it out right here.
Connect with the Community:
Watch episodes on YouTube
Check out the Website
Take the What is Your Earth Archetype? Quiz
Follow Earth Archetypes on Instagram
Or how about Earth Archetypes on Facebook
Pick Your Favorite Way to Join
Direct with Earth Archetypes
Through Patreon
Via Buy Me a Coffee
iHeart’s Supporters Club
Apple Podcast’s Subscription
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm just saying what I've been interested in is how do we bring these things back in
(00:06):
ways that without technology, without electricity, without commodification or anything where
we just get together and hold each other well for a sustained period of time, or those
or technologies are actually made, being made use of?
Is it reweasers back in the sense of being a people, even if we're a bunch of strangers
(00:30):
to begin with, we can grow so close to each other and feel so bonded through just the
act of holding each other well?
Welcome to the EarthMates podcast.
Together we explore how to find your path from climate anxiety to community action, by
(00:53):
asking, "Who are you?" because just like any relationship, that matters.
So get ready to be raw and real, but also playful and silly with me, Chief Relationship
Officer Amber Peoples, as we discover what's possible through the lens of the five Earth
(01:15):
archetypes.
Curiosity and subscription buttons, highly encouraged.
Welcome friends to today's podcast.
As we record this session, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
In fact, we've been getting quite the winter wonderland storm here where I live.
(01:39):
And today, the ice has covered everything.
It's dripping in icicles.
It's turned parking lots into ice rinks.
It is a place that you want to make sure you have extra traction on your shoes and your
tires, or hopefully have the ability to snuggle in your nest at home.
(02:02):
Wherever you are, perhaps you're in the Southern Hemisphere, or perhaps you're in the Northern
Hemisphere, but listening to this six months down the road from now.
Wherever you are, I'd like to encourage you to take this moment to experience the nature
that's around you, the environment, the air that you're breathing, the light that might
(02:23):
be coming through, the darkness that might be holding you.
But I'm going to silently count to five in my head while you have that moment.
Thank you.
(02:50):
And now I am delighted to introduce you to our special guest, Lawrence Cole.
Lawrence and I met 12 years ago at the Northwest Permaculture Convergence.
It was actually the start of my decade-long career working in events.
Since then, Lawrence and I have been in several song circles together.
(03:10):
Most of them led by him.
In fact, every single person who takes the Earth Relationship type quiz gets a recommendation
for a song he has recorded.
He is truly a master community songweaver and ritualist.
Then, this past summer was especially meaningful for me.
After leading a 30-minute-long songweaving with a four-part harmony, Lawrence referred
(03:35):
to technologies of belonging and connection that go far beyond social media.
I've been a buzz with this idea ever since, and that's why I'm so excited to chat with
Lawrence today.
So welcome, Lawrence.
I'm so curious to hear what your version of that story might be.
(03:59):
Well, what I recall is, yes, we've seen each other in multiple times over quite a stretch
of time.
And I've been leading songs and song gatherings for quite a number of years, around 15 years
(04:23):
of stuff.
And from early on in the first four or five years, I began seeing you on a regular basis.
But I remember that we talked afterwards about your travels back to your ancestral homelands.
And we talked about feeling back into a sense of knowingly where feeling in your bones
(04:55):
essentially, letting your bones be like and tracking and homing devices that we have those
phrases.
I just knew it in my bones, and many people tell me when they go to an ancestral village
or something, but something actually awakens in them around a sense of being present
(05:19):
where many generations have lived and have been perhaps buried there so that somehow the
connection mysteriously allows you to have a sense that in your bones you're feeling
like, oh, wow, I have a connection to this place that I maybe don't have anywhere else.
(05:42):
And I would say this is a major part of the sensibility that I like us to explore is
another kind of technology.
And that's one of the ways that the way you were made from time immemorial is that sometimes
(06:10):
you would know hundreds of thousands of years.
There are certain capacities that humans have known about that in many ways.
We just use as a figure of speech, but we don't really recognize it, recognize it as something
that's actually real, that is still alive in us.
(06:32):
And because we're also displaced in this regard, you know, most of us are displaced from
our ancestral home grounds.
It's not something that necessarily comes up unless you're wrecked, tactically and intentionally
go back to that place, but I've known people who just didn't even know for sure and then
(06:56):
found out by being in a place and having that sense and then checking on their lineage
and their ancestry.
Oh, my God, yes, that was a true thing I showed.
So I think, well, I'm just saying these things because belonging is in the ways that we
(07:19):
lived for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of years was a very critical part of our,
you could say, our wiring, our, our, we could say our continuum of expectations that when
we're born, we're born to, to feel like we're whole and that what home is is about our people
(07:44):
and all our relations are noticing that we've arrived and are glad about it because we're
seen as a new bundle of an elderly in training, carrying fully loaded with this particular
quality of medicine that it will be our job to welcome and unfold in a, you know, process
(08:09):
of rights of passage and a much more comprehensive sense of the people have received this blessing
and it's a, it's our job to bring it forward through the ways that we lead out the identity
(08:30):
of a completely unique being through.
It's not something you put in them, it's a, you learn technology though, welcome belonging
connection that helped them come forward into their unique presence and then that ripens
over all lifetime to the good of the community and to the good of the person, of course.
(08:52):
And when that doesn't happen, it's a very primal wound when my teachers used that phrase,
the primal wound is the break in belonging and so most healing, it's not about just healing
the individual as if they were an isolated entity, it's about, true healing is about a
(09:14):
kind of wholeness which is the root of the word healing and is, is wholeness and it's being
part of a wholen that you are unique and absolutely critical part of a whole that works together.
As a people James Hillman, the, the, well known, people worker and a psychotherapist and writer
(09:43):
said through his exploration in these rounds he said among people who know these things,
the self is not in community, it is, this can be in any, and so you know yourself as an
integral part of a people and that's what was the reality for as I say, talking in the
(10:09):
moral and modern life as pretty much let us into so much displacement and homelessness
in terms of those kind of awarenesses and that it's, it's, there's so much that is lost
from that sense of security and safety and belonging with your, your, all your relation
(10:35):
and the wisdom of, of place that has been gathered over countless generations of learning
that it is in days and as people speak to about learning from the plants and learning from
the animals as their teacher that nature was the, the great teacher that, that's where
(10:57):
you went you didn't have libraries or you know school, you know sitting in rows somewhere
in a building to learn how to earn a living someday or these behaviors though while sitting
in rows, you, it's how you nature, well often on your own and came back and, and helped
(11:21):
yourself having been witnessed and welcomed there and taught basic understandings and develop
in the capacity to communicate anyway.
In other words, how to deeply listen.
Those are all technologies of connection and belonging but I have a teacher that, who
(11:43):
grew up in such an ancient culture that she spoke to the, the four healing sows which
are singing, dancing, storytelling and silence which he said you well being unravels wherever
(12:04):
you became uncomfortable with any one of those things whether someone shamed you into thinking
that you can sing because they were expecting more of you than your age appropriateness was
able to produce you know or awkwardness since cat got you tongue or whatever it is you know
(12:26):
that didn't allow you to just be at ease in your silence or in your movement in your dance.
These are all areas of profound shame and can be wounded and then, and then if we don't
find our way back to a communal capacity to hold those things well in which often happen
(12:52):
as a collective process in some form of ritual or another that everyone engages in and
everyone supports everyone it's not performance it's not something commodified it is something
that your birthright can be part of and when you engage in these things in a communal way
(13:12):
where everyone supports each other in the expression of our song of our movement of our
capacity to tell good stories not just stories of ancient wisdom but the stories of your
life and have them of what's really happening what's true for you to be that honesty and telling
(13:36):
the truth was you know a side effect of stories that heal stories that we was back into if
there's any slippage so there's all these truths that are just built into the capacities
that we carry into the world as we're born our voices our our ears our our hearts are feeling
(14:02):
realm in our capacity to for all and wonder that is that is and all of those things are
magnified and anchored through doing them together so doing in them with your relation with
your people and of course even many languages and the original languages often have the sounds of
(14:27):
them the landscape and the animals of the place where your people were in given life and so
it's a you you mirror and get mirrored back and in the ways that you express this is traditionally
so i'm just saying what i've been interested in is how do we bring these things back in ways
(14:53):
that without technology without electricity without commodification or anything where we just
get together and and hold each other well for a sustained period of time for our books
for technologies are actually made being made use of is it reweasers back in buisins of being a
(15:14):
people even if we're a bunch of strangers to begin with we can grow so close to each other and feel
so bonded through just the act of holding each other well through a sustained ritual that includes
all these things so that's some that's what what inspires me
(15:40):
truly to doing the kind of circles of singing and particularly for holding rituals
for the tending of grief which i always say is my idea of a good time because it involves
all these things and lead ones in such a place of connectedness in a sense of art of belonging to
(16:05):
a group of people who fiercely love each other and um yeah thank you so much Lawrence there's there's
so much so much duetiness there um that it's and there's this beautiful cadence to the way that
you speak of it that almost puts my my body into this state where i can really receive it in a way
(16:32):
that's that almost in some ways bypasses kind of some of that um executive functional and prefrontal
cortex the part of me that judges and and dissects and takes apart and and allows me to be an interviewer
you know kind of speak at this moment and so i just want to honor um that that way that you
(16:54):
embody what it is that you're saying because i feel it as as you're speaking of it and for for you
listening i i really hope that came across as well too is this sense of you could listen to this podcast
many times over and and get something slightly different out of it because it'll resonate with
(17:15):
your body in a in a different way each time and and so i i think that there was just so much in that
that 15 minutes of sharing that you just had with us Lawrence and as as i tried to imagine where to
steer at max there's there's so many different places and i think one of them that is
(17:36):
a question that i often have is is understanding that we do and especially in the United States and
a lot of westernized industrialized nations the overarching culture does have a disconnect with
with what it is that you're speaking about and and it is interesting to me to consider ways that we
(18:00):
can incorporate but in a way that is true and authentic and that also kind of allows us to take
the the baby steps perhaps that we need to to get there and how that may or may not look different in
countries and communities and regions where this is this is more the norm this is daily life
(18:27):
well i think when you when you live in a more or less state of nature where you don't have
all the technologies from from its extracted industries and so on that allow us to
(18:53):
you know operate with power differentials in every context whether it's entertainment or
travel or whatever there's there's a capacity for holding witness
(19:19):
and this is when we gather in ritual it's really the um we remember and
that and the recognition that things do get more disconnected and more fragile and before the
(19:43):
fragility leads to a break it where you know it there's a line from a beautiful poem by William
Stafford where he says there's many a small betrayal in the mind a shrug that lets the fragile
sequence break sending you know it's it's rather than shrugging and saying oh well whatever let's move on
(20:14):
if we don't stop and when the teachers that first came to the west to teach grief ritual malodoma
and subonifusome from Burkina Faso in in Africa west Africa when i first read their material before i
(20:35):
have been met them they said well doing grief ritual is the glue of community in fact we do rituals
of all sorts and it's how we keep rereaving the bond of connection and belonging essentially
so it's the glue of keep help because we need each other you know last year the thing about community
through community you you know you everyone's important and we're not going to make it without everyone
(20:59):
everyone's medicine and everyone's care is all how you know and so it's living at that basic level
which has to be convidial we have to live upon it on a respected and respectful even footing together
as as eight people and our people are even the more than human world the three people and the
(21:26):
elk people and the beaver people and the you know eagle people and all of them everything was
and everything is alive so you have the capacity to learn witnessing and to be witnessed and
when you say that the silence involved in that you know the a lot of the teachings of the great
(21:55):
masters and the is was harkening back to well and particularly in the early Taoist teachings
there are times to be active there's a time to be still there are times to be coming forth with your
young energy your outward energy of their times to be empty and still and to be receptive to take in
(22:21):
and really let your own expression take a rest while you receive someone else's full reality and
you and you practice that in so many ways there's so many practices that are part of
folding sacred witness holding the witness of another sacred being or of any sort of maybe it's a tree
(22:45):
maybe it is a beaver but you you attend to it in such a way that you're empty enough to receive
its reality and to learn from that and to cherish that and to reflect it back in such a way that
that other thing knows that you see them and then when human beings do that and
(23:07):
when you feel witness you feel a sense of belonging and when you give witness you feel a sense of
belonging because you feel because the reality of being witnessed in that way brings such a sense of
closeness and well-being to the person being witnessed and then you feel their gladness
(23:31):
and that warms you and so you feel connected but it can't happen if both people have things to say
in our trying to are in their young state because when young meets young it separates the psych poles
of the magnet and so when there's a an emptiness that receives and takes the form and shape I call it
(23:55):
because it's like an enzyme you know an enzyme doesn't actually change it doesn't interact
chemically or anyway with a substance substance is not nutritionally available and so enzyme comes
and forms the shape of it while that thing that substance can shift and become more available to
(24:17):
and then there's a separation but there's also a sense of having been mirrored in a way that is
nutritionally in itself I mean I'm just using it as an analogy but that's what I call that quality
of listening is I call it enzymatic listening because we just take the shape of another but it takes
practice and skill to learn to not try to force a change but to just be with someone and trust that
(24:43):
there just by having your presence your reality witness you will move through the change that
takes you back into a sense of of closeness and connection otherwise healed and not it does it's
not crazy making it's like oh what's happening I can be witnessed and I can go through it because
(25:07):
someone is with me and they're not trying to fix me or think that they know better than my own
internal wisdom or any of that they're just trusting that I can move through this by just giving me
that that witness thing and so that's a huge part of part of the process of ritual is to
provide opportunities for people to experience each other in that way and it builds a sense of a
(25:32):
container that then can hold but through quite intensive times the more and you know the kind of
ritual that really welcomes really big feeling and really big motion and really big sound and
with the expression and then finally finishing to a place of feeling cleansed and released and
(25:56):
just relax back into your presence as a good thing in the world because you've been so witnessed
and so supported through that through the kind of radical ritual that has doesn't run on linear time
it just runs on what's really up and ready to move and they wait at a sacred witnessing and welcoming
(26:19):
for what someone needs to pass through to come back to a place of of equilibrium and
and rest in there in there just there the goodness of their own being and so it's something that
happens has a people and the re-weave you back into community that I can get up and do what needs to be
(26:42):
done for for each other in other ways you know and so I was a those are the ways that when we first
started doing this work with the folks from Africa we part of our prayer would be help it help
us ancestors will learn how to be human beings again because these are the natural ways
(27:05):
for thousands and thousands of years people who depended on each other to stay deeply and
and strongly and intuitively connected to the currents of life and the presence of more than human
relations and the spirit world and everything else you know it's it's interesting I heard a podcast
(27:28):
recently I think it was on the emerald where you know we've been told well I was I don't know I
seem it seemed to be the thing the mysterious thing that human beings had only used 10% of our brains
yeah and I think what's that about you know yeah well what's the rest of just it just
(27:53):
called all on its own is some sort of preemptive strike when we might need to be harder at some point
I did this dumb myself down and the breadth of our brains are going uh heck remember me
you might want to activate some of this part then I can't be such a terrible mistakes in ruining
(28:14):
your the place you live um so anyway you need help and the help is available and perceive it
uh you're gonna keep on doing stupid things and so and uh and uh so the point is that
there are ways to keep the the intelligence is not just a localized intelligence the main thing the
(28:42):
rest of the brain is for apprehending and receiving the intelligence of the universe of that of
and of the whole living world in ways that is not about dominion over but learning to be a caring
presence in the whole sacred witness and holding sacred action where the sake of the well-being
(29:06):
of all our relations so I think I said yeah there was there was a lot and so it sounds like a lot of what
you described is that that setting of ritual uh and that there is the there is the day to day where there's
perhaps different practices in in these realms of feeling like you are more strongly tied in
(29:31):
community versus a society where there's more uh issues around dominance but perhaps the place where
we can we can both meet and both benefit from are those those moments of ritual where it we are
casting kind of a circle and a container for these these moments to happen where we can
(29:52):
um truly witness and we can truly um experience uh and we can have you know you emphasize that
there are certain you know practices within that to make sure that um that that space is is held
in a way that purposefully moves that energy or at least provides the setting for the best possible
(30:16):
way for it to move and I thought what was kind of interesting there within the sense of ritual
was um was this this element of reciprocity you know because we we've talked a lot about you know you
talked about your enzymes you talked about dominance you talked about belonging and it seems like
(30:39):
um this place of reciprocity is is really important um not so much that it's you know one for one and
you're keeping tallies and sheets and things like that but there is this sense of
truly being curious about one another truly listening to one another truly um giving when it feels like
(31:04):
a genuine place to give from or be able to be the one who receives risk support when it feels like
the genuine time to do that and and I'm and we also talked about about you know the more than human
world in there as well with the different plants and the animals and the elements and I'm wondering
as as you look at these frameworks that you know and these technologies of belonging connection
(31:30):
how do you interpret that sense of a reciprocal relationship it is the essence
of the living world you know so many teachers certainly it's like a a key part of the teaching from
Robin Walkimer the author of the book on moss and then the book on braiding sweet crass it's called
(31:59):
is she throughout that whole the whole teachings of the of her people the potawatomi people and
other people of that a ancient presence here on this continent um is the sense of uh all flourishing is
(32:23):
mutual and so then everything I was once asked to write a song this
that he said just it just means that everything essentially is obligated to everything else
(32:44):
or our lives everything lives in obligation is the word of the words of the song
everything everything is in obligation to everything that is
everything is in obligation to everything that is
(33:13):
and there is that other layers to it
is in parminism thing but the whole thing was yes and everything survived it's the
out animal is the animistic notion that everything has here and everything is part of a
(33:40):
of a symbiosis of the interwoven uh mutually flourishing mutually supportive things but that
it is maintained through a sense of obligation and um and gratitude so when we say oh
obligation oh god bless everybody I know I know I know I know sort of a dirty word in our culture um
(34:06):
the fact is when you say much obliged when someone when you hear that if someone says to your
oh much obliged and it's like there's a different atmosphere in the heart you can notice when
just hearing that phrase the difference that you feel and um so it means that what you've offered me
(34:31):
I believe the pass along it offers to the next person in a similar need or if you have an issue or
concern or you need some help in some way I'm gonna be there for you for sure I am I'm I'm on the
case with you right away and so and it's it's built in that's what the hair floor is to make sure that we
(34:58):
bear witness oh okay what I have I have more than I need um has to belong whatever I have you have
and uh we share yeah so this idea this idea that has kind of been interwoven throughout our
and conversation so far is this I you know in this last little section you talked about we need each
(35:21):
other you talked about um being much obliged you talked about listening and witnessing and um
there were there were so many interwoven parts uh and and I would like to take us kind of
back to this to these specifics of the technologies of belonging connection which once again were
(35:42):
song and dance and um story and silence and in the intro I I talked a lot about um our interwoven stories
and history of of song together and um and and you gave us a sweet little taste of of a song that
(36:04):
fit in so perfectly into what you were speaking I work in the world of musical sometimes and and we
often joke about how what it would be like to live a life where you just broke out in song because you
were called to and most people really laugh at that and I and I love that it is truly a part of who
you are Lawrence on a day-to-day basis is that there's these moments that you you know that there's
(36:28):
something that is is expressed in a different way and in a more articulate way in a more connected way
through song and so I'd love to have you talk a little bit more about how you see song whether that's
through harmonies or through the the ritual of song or whatever way that you think that that song
(36:51):
really is this technology of belonging and connection my teacher and Delis Arian who spoke of
these healing sounds she was the best woman I think I may have mentioned anyway um she says that every
child sings I mean if you if you go I've heard it said someone you go into a school through pre-school
(37:16):
or a kindergarten and you say okay who loves to sing here who's a good singer who's a and all
the hands go up oh yeah yeah yeah and you know by the second grade there's a few hands going up
by the fourth or fifth grade maybe one or two and you know because they're better than they're
(37:40):
and it's like um so shaming has already happened and um
it's uh it's not that way in in you know my daughter uh teachers and what's the principle of the
GWilliam tribal school out on the coast here in Washington and when you go to the song night you
(38:05):
know the elder they're drumming and singing the songs and the little kids are right there
and they're learning the dances and you know this is all coming back I mean they're
reclaiming their culture it's quite beautiful to see but it's uh the joy and the connectivity
that's present in the room with that happening because nobody's being corrected and they're just
(38:25):
doing it and and they pick it up in the ways that they can and you can feel it progressing towards
more cohesion and but it's just welcomed in it it's not a performance it's just what we do together
to remember who we are and what what we what we love to do is to express together
(38:49):
power and meaning and beauty and cohesion and staying in the in the rhythm together and staying in
the the power of our voices blended and yes sometimes now you know in some cultures harmony has
been more of a thing than another and some places it's more rhythmical subtlety but it develops from
(39:12):
inviting the kids from or wearing your kids on the back you know uh you know so that that sense of
belonging while someone is working and being and at the same time seeing what they're
you know they're working partners if they're pounding grain or whatever it's a rhythmical thing of
the you know there's rhythm and song in the midst of it and the children are just writing along with it
(39:37):
and they're born into it and as grow up into it as part of the way that you you feel yourself
in connection as a as a part of a powerful expression that fits with the
(39:57):
the business of living fits in the of it in a in a beautiful way and um so when I say singing it's yes
everyone has their favorite songs and their and their ways of singing but it's the singing that
happens in a collective where you hear how I put it I say when we sing and we have a part
(40:26):
and it's so much easier to hold our part if we have a partner or partners in that to help us stay
together in it so a lot of the songs I teach are learned right and pass along are songs with layers
in them and you teach the parts separately and people then stay together by with their partners
(40:47):
and the other part have their partners and pretty soon when all the partners in the different parts
are uh holding their places together interwoven with the other parts it becomes a partnership
and a ship is a vessel and you go somewhere you can't go alone it takes you to a quality of
(41:10):
experience it's just impossible to just get on to you just singing alone you know beautiful time
singing alone not saying I'm just saying that the technology of belonging essentially is the technology
of people singing together and this is as ancient it may even predate speed you know it may be in the
(41:31):
earliest earliest amount of pauses think that's the singing reflex or whatever it was just
expressing powerful feeling in having people joining in mirroring it reflecting and being with it
and so the you don't feel alone you feel connected and your feelings are true and have
(41:52):
and are are held by others in a way and the sounds of the of expression are carried together and that's
that's that sense of belonging and it's the same when you're done and you feel the power of what's
still vibrating in the atmosphere and you hold the silence of that lively energy that is it's
(42:15):
that's also a bonding experience a sense of whoa look what we did we can still feel it and we
feel that heightened of viveness and connectivity um so it's those kinds of things that we do together
that are what I call technologies of and and so the elements of you know and a lot of times in
(42:43):
in like in grief or to a we don't we just have people fall that sacredness and then when they're done
we don't reflect or anything we just nod and say thank you because we stayed the course with you
and just that when you're done when they're finished and they give gratitude for what they experience
(43:08):
both as a listener and a being listened to it's so much sense of connection and and belonging
has has happened just through holding silence for someone else's expression and but a lively silence
that's compassionately curious about what what what is it like for you to be having your life
(43:31):
experience right now in its deepest layers and how can I just stay with you while you describe that
and then the potency of that is is so uh so delicious for people and so so healing
and when others song it just says attention is the healer of separation
(43:55):
attention is the healer of set up a relation and of course I have to take a deep breath so you don't
separate the syllables there
attention is the healer of set up a you know it's nothing more quite as well
(44:22):
what was really beautiful about that Lawrence - as you gave SEDJA you know um part of my brain when
I asked the question was expecting you to go into a direction that was very western it was
you know talk about the overtones and the harmonies and you know what some of the studies done
around singing is that our hearts and our breaths start you know syncing and that's something that
(44:46):
we can measure in science and all of that is true and I love that you reminded us too of this more
intuitive way of growing up with it of its symbiotic nature with with a felt sense of belonging
and and even without any prompting you know we we had the question was around singing and you found
(45:10):
your way eventually to silence as if there was no to use your words separation between these two
different um technologies of belonging and connection and I know me personally a lot of times when
I hear that rhythm my my body wants to respond I want to bring in that dance element because that's
what feels most most natural to me and so um I think what's beautiful about these technologies is just
(45:36):
like they are about belonging they as as a whole belong so well to each other and so there's layers
upon layers of that and I just think that's so beautiful
yeah in some African languages for instance there's no the word for a song is also the word for dance
(45:58):
I mean they're interwoven that's what the idea is and we're human be you know I think even in some
languages there is no there isn't a different word or any of it for people singing and singing it's like
that's what we are we're singing dancing things so in a girl
well as we come to the near the end of our hour together I um I would love to have you send us
(46:26):
with a song well let's see hmm I think yeah I think there's one I'm just thinking of it is
inspired by some words from Winona Winona Ladouque which is also kind of the essential theme of belongingness
is you and I draining this water you and I breathe this air
(46:54):
and then she said you and I live here so
caring for the water caring for the air caring for each other and I added another line
just to remind us where we are on this this holy ground that is this living earth so the song goes
(47:23):
before we hear Lawrence's song I want to let you know that his heartfelt four-part harmony
starts to blow up the mic so I cut it right before the fourth rafter rising verse
you can hear a recorded version of you and I along with many other songs on his website
lorenschool.com a link is in the show notes and now back to lorence you and I
(47:54):
and you hold out that long note those when the harmonies come in it's lovely to just hold the tones
and listen to the harmonies that goes you and I drink this water
you and I breathe this
(48:30):
you and I
walk this holy ground
oh you and I live here
(48:52):
and then the next line is on you and I drink this water you and I breathe this air
you and I
(49:15):
walk this holy ground you and I
live here
then I just I'd like to
they and we so we start breaking down this other ring
(49:42):
they and we
we this and I'm going to sing another i mean
then we warm it's holy ground then we
(50:11):
live in all of us oh yeah
thank you song I know that's one of the things that we teach in song circles is at the end also
to honor that silence at the end and also to to thank the song the song itself the the heartbeat of
(50:37):
the song and its presence and so thank you song and of course many many thanks to you my friend
Lawrence I am so honored and delighted and full of smiles in this moment for having you as a friend
in my life I feel so well so welcome
(51:02):
yeah it's a true thing
hey earthmate how did that episode resonate did it stretch you inspire you or perhaps
(51:22):
urke you I'm here for it so please reach out besides the socials we have a community to practice
with on our website eartharchetypes.com where more earth archetypes can guide your path and become
dear friends a great place to start is the quiz to discover your type oh and on your way I'd love
(51:45):
for you to hit the subscribe button see you again soon
I'm just saying what I've been interested in is how do we bring these things back in
(00:06):
ways that without technology, without electricity, without commodification or anything where
we just get together and hold each other well for a sustained period of time, or those
or technologies are actually made, being made use of?
Is it reweasers back in the sense of being a people, even if we're a bunch of strangers
(00:30):
to begin with, we can grow so close to each other and feel so bonded through just the
act of holding each other well?
Welcome to the EarthMates podcast.
Together we explore how to find your path from climate anxiety to community action, by
(00:53):
asking, "Who are you?" because just like any relationship, that matters.
So get ready to be raw and real, but also playful and silly with me, Chief Relationship
Officer Amber Peoples, as we discover what's possible through the lens of the five Earth
(01:15):
archetypes.
Curiosity and subscription buttons, highly encouraged.
Welcome friends to today's podcast.
As we record this session, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
In fact, we've been getting quite the winter wonderland storm here where I live.
(01:39):
And today, the ice has covered everything.
It's dripping in icicles.
It's turned parking lots into ice rinks.
It is a place that you want to make sure you have extra traction on your shoes and your
tires, or hopefully have the ability to snuggle in your nest at home.
(02:02):
Wherever you are, perhaps you're in the Southern Hemisphere, or perhaps you're in the Northern
Hemisphere, but listening to this six months down the road from now.
Wherever you are, I'd like to encourage you to take this moment to experience the nature
that's around you, the environment, the air that you're breathing, the light that might
(02:23):
be coming through, the darkness that might be holding you.
But I'm going to silently count to five in my head while you have that moment.
Thank you.
(02:50):
And now I am delighted to introduce you to our special guest, Lawrence Cole.
Lawrence and I met 12 years ago at the Northwest Permaculture Convergence.
It was actually the start of my decade-long career working in events.
Since then, Lawrence and I have been in several song circles together.
(03:10):
Most of them led by him.
In fact, every single person who takes the Earth Relationship type quiz gets a recommendation
for a song he has recorded.
He is truly a master community songweaver and ritualist.
Then, this past summer was especially meaningful for me.
After leading a 30-minute-long songweaving with a four-part harmony, Lawrence referred
(03:35):
to technologies of belonging and connection that go far beyond social media.
I've been a buzz with this idea ever since, and that's why I'm so excited to chat with
Lawrence today.
So welcome, Lawrence.
I'm so curious to hear what your version of that story might be.
(03:59):
Well, what I recall is, yes, we've seen each other in multiple times over quite a stretch
of time.
And I've been leading songs and song gatherings for quite a number of years, around 15 years
(04:23):
of stuff.
And from early on in the first four or five years, I began seeing you on a regular basis.
But I remember that we talked afterwards about your travels back to your ancestral homelands.
And we talked about feeling back into a sense of knowingly where feeling in your bones
(04:55):
essentially, letting your bones be like and tracking and homing devices that we have those
phrases.
I just knew it in my bones, and many people tell me when they go to an ancestral village
or something, but something actually awakens in them around a sense of being present
(05:19):
where many generations have lived and have been perhaps buried there so that somehow the
connection mysteriously allows you to have a sense that in your bones you're feeling
like, oh, wow, I have a connection to this place that I maybe don't have anywhere else.
(05:42):
And I would say this is a major part of the sensibility that I like us to explore is
another kind of technology.
And that's one of the ways that the way you were made from time immemorial is that sometimes
(06:10):
you would know hundreds of thousands of years.
There are certain capacities that humans have known about that in many ways.
We just use as a figure of speech, but we don't really recognize it, recognize it as something
that's actually real, that is still alive in us.
(06:32):
And because we're also displaced in this regard, you know, most of us are displaced from
our ancestral home grounds.
It's not something that necessarily comes up unless you're wrecked, tactically and intentionally
go back to that place, but I've known people who just didn't even know for sure and then
(06:56):
found out by being in a place and having that sense and then checking on their lineage
and their ancestry.
Oh, my God, yes, that was a true thing I showed.
So I think, well, I'm just saying these things because belonging is in the ways that we
(07:19):
lived for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of years was a very critical part of our,
you could say, our wiring, our, our, we could say our continuum of expectations that when
we're born, we're born to, to feel like we're whole and that what home is is about our people
(07:44):
and all our relations are noticing that we've arrived and are glad about it because we're
seen as a new bundle of an elderly in training, carrying fully loaded with this particular
quality of medicine that it will be our job to welcome and unfold in a, you know, process
(08:09):
of rights of passage and a much more comprehensive sense of the people have received this blessing
and it's a, it's our job to bring it forward through the ways that we lead out the identity
(08:30):
of a completely unique being through.
It's not something you put in them, it's a, you learn technology though, welcome belonging
connection that helped them come forward into their unique presence and then that ripens
over all lifetime to the good of the community and to the good of the person, of course.
(08:52):
And when that doesn't happen, it's a very primal wound when my teachers used that phrase,
the primal wound is the break in belonging and so most healing, it's not about just healing
the individual as if they were an isolated entity, it's about, true healing is about a
(09:14):
kind of wholeness which is the root of the word healing and is, is wholeness and it's being
part of a wholen that you are unique and absolutely critical part of a whole that works together.
As a people James Hillman, the, the, well known, people worker and a psychotherapist and writer
(09:43):
said through his exploration in these rounds he said among people who know these things,
the self is not in community, it is, this can be in any, and so you know yourself as an
integral part of a people and that's what was the reality for as I say, talking in the
(10:09):
moral and modern life as pretty much let us into so much displacement and homelessness
in terms of those kind of awarenesses and that it's, it's, there's so much that is lost
from that sense of security and safety and belonging with your, your, all your relation
(10:35):
and the wisdom of, of place that has been gathered over countless generations of learning
that it is in days and as people speak to about learning from the plants and learning from
the animals as their teacher that nature was the, the great teacher that, that's where
(10:57):
you went you didn't have libraries or you know school, you know sitting in rows somewhere
in a building to learn how to earn a living someday or these behaviors though while sitting
in rows, you, it's how you nature, well often on your own and came back and, and helped
(11:21):
yourself having been witnessed and welcomed there and taught basic understandings and develop
in the capacity to communicate anyway.
In other words, how to deeply listen.
Those are all technologies of connection and belonging but I have a teacher that, who
(11:43):
grew up in such an ancient culture that she spoke to the, the four healing sows which
are singing, dancing, storytelling and silence which he said you well being unravels wherever
(12:04):
you became uncomfortable with any one of those things whether someone shamed you into thinking
that you can sing because they were expecting more of you than your age appropriateness was
able to produce you know or awkwardness since cat got you tongue or whatever it is you know
(12:26):
that didn't allow you to just be at ease in your silence or in your movement in your dance.
These are all areas of profound shame and can be wounded and then, and then if we don't
find our way back to a communal capacity to hold those things well in which often happen
(12:52):
as a collective process in some form of ritual or another that everyone engages in and
everyone supports everyone it's not performance it's not something commodified it is something
that your birthright can be part of and when you engage in these things in a communal way
(13:12):
where everyone supports each other in the expression of our song of our movement of our
capacity to tell good stories not just stories of ancient wisdom but the stories of your
life and have them of what's really happening what's true for you to be that honesty and telling
(13:36):
the truth was you know a side effect of stories that heal stories that we was back into if
there's any slippage so there's all these truths that are just built into the capacities
that we carry into the world as we're born our voices our our ears our our hearts are feeling
(14:02):
realm in our capacity to for all and wonder that is that is and all of those things are
magnified and anchored through doing them together so doing in them with your relation with
your people and of course even many languages and the original languages often have the sounds of
(14:27):
them the landscape and the animals of the place where your people were in given life and so
it's a you you mirror and get mirrored back and in the ways that you express this is traditionally
so i'm just saying what i've been interested in is how do we bring these things back in ways
(14:53):
that without technology without electricity without commodification or anything where we just
get together and and hold each other well for a sustained period of time for our books
for technologies are actually made being made use of is it reweasers back in buisins of being a
(15:14):
people even if we're a bunch of strangers to begin with we can grow so close to each other and feel
so bonded through just the act of holding each other well through a sustained ritual that includes
all these things so that's some that's what what inspires me
(15:40):
truly to doing the kind of circles of singing and particularly for holding rituals
for the tending of grief which i always say is my idea of a good time because it involves
all these things and lead ones in such a place of connectedness in a sense of art of belonging to
(16:05):
a group of people who fiercely love each other and um yeah thank you so much Lawrence there's there's
so much so much duetiness there um that it's and there's this beautiful cadence to the way that
you speak of it that almost puts my my body into this state where i can really receive it in a way
(16:32):
that's that almost in some ways bypasses kind of some of that um executive functional and prefrontal
cortex the part of me that judges and and dissects and takes apart and and allows me to be an interviewer
you know kind of speak at this moment and so i just want to honor um that that way that you
(16:54):
embody what it is that you're saying because i feel it as as you're speaking of it and for for you
listening i i really hope that came across as well too is this sense of you could listen to this podcast
many times over and and get something slightly different out of it because it'll resonate with
(17:15):
your body in a in a different way each time and and so i i think that there was just so much in that
that 15 minutes of sharing that you just had with us Lawrence and as as i tried to imagine where to
steer at max there's there's so many different places and i think one of them that is
(17:36):
a question that i often have is is understanding that we do and especially in the United States and
a lot of westernized industrialized nations the overarching culture does have a disconnect with
with what it is that you're speaking about and and it is interesting to me to consider ways that we
(18:00):
can incorporate but in a way that is true and authentic and that also kind of allows us to take
the the baby steps perhaps that we need to to get there and how that may or may not look different in
countries and communities and regions where this is this is more the norm this is daily life
(18:27):
well i think when you when you live in a more or less state of nature where you don't have
all the technologies from from its extracted industries and so on that allow us to
(18:53):
you know operate with power differentials in every context whether it's entertainment or
travel or whatever there's there's a capacity for holding witness
(19:19):
and this is when we gather in ritual it's really the um we remember and
that and the recognition that things do get more disconnected and more fragile and before the
(19:43):
fragility leads to a break it where you know it there's a line from a beautiful poem by William
Stafford where he says there's many a small betrayal in the mind a shrug that lets the fragile
sequence break sending you know it's it's rather than shrugging and saying oh well whatever let's move on
(20:14):
if we don't stop and when the teachers that first came to the west to teach grief ritual malodoma
and subonifusome from Burkina Faso in in Africa west Africa when i first read their material before i
(20:35):
have been met them they said well doing grief ritual is the glue of community in fact we do rituals
of all sorts and it's how we keep rereaving the bond of connection and belonging essentially
so it's the glue of keep help because we need each other you know last year the thing about community
through community you you know you everyone's important and we're not going to make it without everyone
(20:59):
everyone's medicine and everyone's care is all how you know and so it's living at that basic level
which has to be convidial we have to live upon it on a respected and respectful even footing together
as as eight people and our people are even the more than human world the three people and the
(21:26):
elk people and the beaver people and the you know eagle people and all of them everything was
and everything is alive so you have the capacity to learn witnessing and to be witnessed and
when you say that the silence involved in that you know the a lot of the teachings of the great
(21:55):
masters and the is was harkening back to well and particularly in the early Taoist teachings
there are times to be active there's a time to be still there are times to be coming forth with your
young energy your outward energy of their times to be empty and still and to be receptive to take in
(22:21):
and really let your own expression take a rest while you receive someone else's full reality and
you and you practice that in so many ways there's so many practices that are part of
folding sacred witness holding the witness of another sacred being or of any sort of maybe it's a tree
(22:45):
maybe it is a beaver but you you attend to it in such a way that you're empty enough to receive
its reality and to learn from that and to cherish that and to reflect it back in such a way that
that other thing knows that you see them and then when human beings do that and
(23:07):
when you feel witness you feel a sense of belonging and when you give witness you feel a sense of
belonging because you feel because the reality of being witnessed in that way brings such a sense of
closeness and well-being to the person being witnessed and then you feel their gladness
(23:31):
and that warms you and so you feel connected but it can't happen if both people have things to say
in our trying to are in their young state because when young meets young it separates the psych poles
of the magnet and so when there's a an emptiness that receives and takes the form and shape I call it
(23:55):
because it's like an enzyme you know an enzyme doesn't actually change it doesn't interact
chemically or anyway with a substance substance is not nutritionally available and so enzyme comes
and forms the shape of it while that thing that substance can shift and become more available to
(24:17):
and then there's a separation but there's also a sense of having been mirrored in a way that is
nutritionally in itself I mean I'm just using it as an analogy but that's what I call that quality
of listening is I call it enzymatic listening because we just take the shape of another but it takes
practice and skill to learn to not try to force a change but to just be with someone and trust that
(24:43):
there just by having your presence your reality witness you will move through the change that
takes you back into a sense of of closeness and connection otherwise healed and not it does it's
not crazy making it's like oh what's happening I can be witnessed and I can go through it because
(25:07):
someone is with me and they're not trying to fix me or think that they know better than my own
internal wisdom or any of that they're just trusting that I can move through this by just giving me
that that witness thing and so that's a huge part of part of the process of ritual is to
provide opportunities for people to experience each other in that way and it builds a sense of a
(25:32):
container that then can hold but through quite intensive times the more and you know the kind of
ritual that really welcomes really big feeling and really big motion and really big sound and
with the expression and then finally finishing to a place of feeling cleansed and released and
(25:56):
just relax back into your presence as a good thing in the world because you've been so witnessed
and so supported through that through the kind of radical ritual that has doesn't run on linear time
it just runs on what's really up and ready to move and they wait at a sacred witnessing and welcoming
(26:19):
for what someone needs to pass through to come back to a place of of equilibrium and
and rest in there in there just there the goodness of their own being and so it's something that
happens has a people and the re-weave you back into community that I can get up and do what needs to be
(26:42):
done for for each other in other ways you know and so I was a those are the ways that when we first
started doing this work with the folks from Africa we part of our prayer would be help it help
us ancestors will learn how to be human beings again because these are the natural ways
(27:05):
for thousands and thousands of years people who depended on each other to stay deeply and
and strongly and intuitively connected to the currents of life and the presence of more than human
relations and the spirit world and everything else you know it's it's interesting I heard a podcast
(27:28):
recently I think it was on the emerald where you know we've been told well I was I don't know I
seem it seemed to be the thing the mysterious thing that human beings had only used 10% of our brains
yeah and I think what's that about you know yeah well what's the rest of just it just
(27:53):
called all on its own is some sort of preemptive strike when we might need to be harder at some point
I did this dumb myself down and the breadth of our brains are going uh heck remember me
you might want to activate some of this part then I can't be such a terrible mistakes in ruining
(28:14):
your the place you live um so anyway you need help and the help is available and perceive it
uh you're gonna keep on doing stupid things and so and uh and uh so the point is that
there are ways to keep the the intelligence is not just a localized intelligence the main thing the
(28:42):
rest of the brain is for apprehending and receiving the intelligence of the universe of that of
and of the whole living world in ways that is not about dominion over but learning to be a caring
presence in the whole sacred witness and holding sacred action where the sake of the well-being
(29:06):
of all our relations so I think I said yeah there was there was a lot and so it sounds like a lot of what
you described is that that setting of ritual uh and that there is the there is the day to day where there's
perhaps different practices in in these realms of feeling like you are more strongly tied in
(29:31):
community versus a society where there's more uh issues around dominance but perhaps the place where
we can we can both meet and both benefit from are those those moments of ritual where it we are
casting kind of a circle and a container for these these moments to happen where we can
(29:52):
um truly witness and we can truly um experience uh and we can have you know you emphasize that
there are certain you know practices within that to make sure that um that that space is is held
in a way that purposefully moves that energy or at least provides the setting for the best possible
(30:16):
way for it to move and I thought what was kind of interesting there within the sense of ritual
was um was this this element of reciprocity you know because we we've talked a lot about you know you
talked about your enzymes you talked about dominance you talked about belonging and it seems like
(30:39):
um this place of reciprocity is is really important um not so much that it's you know one for one and
you're keeping tallies and sheets and things like that but there is this sense of
truly being curious about one another truly listening to one another truly um giving when it feels like
(31:04):
a genuine place to give from or be able to be the one who receives risk support when it feels like
the genuine time to do that and and I'm and we also talked about about you know the more than human
world in there as well with the different plants and the animals and the elements and I'm wondering
as as you look at these frameworks that you know and these technologies of belonging connection
(31:30):
how do you interpret that sense of a reciprocal relationship it is the essence
of the living world you know so many teachers certainly it's like a a key part of the teaching from
Robin Walkimer the author of the book on moss and then the book on braiding sweet crass it's called
(31:59):
is she throughout that whole the whole teachings of the of her people the potawatomi people and
other people of that a ancient presence here on this continent um is the sense of uh all flourishing is
(32:23):
mutual and so then everything I was once asked to write a song this
that he said just it just means that everything essentially is obligated to everything else
(32:44):
or our lives everything lives in obligation is the word of the words of the song
everything everything is in obligation to everything that is
everything is in obligation to everything that is
(33:13):
and there is that other layers to it
is in parminism thing but the whole thing was yes and everything survived it's the
out animal is the animistic notion that everything has here and everything is part of a
(33:40):
of a symbiosis of the interwoven uh mutually flourishing mutually supportive things but that
it is maintained through a sense of obligation and um and gratitude so when we say oh
obligation oh god bless everybody I know I know I know I know sort of a dirty word in our culture um
(34:06):
the fact is when you say much obliged when someone when you hear that if someone says to your
oh much obliged and it's like there's a different atmosphere in the heart you can notice when
just hearing that phrase the difference that you feel and um so it means that what you've offered me
(34:31):
I believe the pass along it offers to the next person in a similar need or if you have an issue or
concern or you need some help in some way I'm gonna be there for you for sure I am I'm I'm on the
case with you right away and so and it's it's built in that's what the hair floor is to make sure that we
(34:58):
bear witness oh okay what I have I have more than I need um has to belong whatever I have you have
and uh we share yeah so this idea this idea that has kind of been interwoven throughout our
and conversation so far is this I you know in this last little section you talked about we need each
(35:21):
other you talked about um being much obliged you talked about listening and witnessing and um
there were there were so many interwoven parts uh and and I would like to take us kind of
back to this to these specifics of the technologies of belonging connection which once again were
(35:42):
song and dance and um story and silence and in the intro I I talked a lot about um our interwoven stories
and history of of song together and um and and you gave us a sweet little taste of of a song that
(36:04):
fit in so perfectly into what you were speaking I work in the world of musical sometimes and and we
often joke about how what it would be like to live a life where you just broke out in song because you
were called to and most people really laugh at that and I and I love that it is truly a part of who
you are Lawrence on a day-to-day basis is that there's these moments that you you know that there's
(36:28):
something that is is expressed in a different way and in a more articulate way in a more connected way
through song and so I'd love to have you talk a little bit more about how you see song whether that's
through harmonies or through the the ritual of song or whatever way that you think that that song
(36:51):
really is this technology of belonging and connection my teacher and Delis Arian who spoke of
these healing sounds she was the best woman I think I may have mentioned anyway um she says that every
child sings I mean if you if you go I've heard it said someone you go into a school through pre-school
(37:16):
or a kindergarten and you say okay who loves to sing here who's a good singer who's a and all
the hands go up oh yeah yeah yeah and you know by the second grade there's a few hands going up
by the fourth or fifth grade maybe one or two and you know because they're better than they're
(37:40):
and it's like um so shaming has already happened and um
it's uh it's not that way in in you know my daughter uh teachers and what's the principle of the
GWilliam tribal school out on the coast here in Washington and when you go to the song night you
(38:05):
know the elder they're drumming and singing the songs and the little kids are right there
and they're learning the dances and you know this is all coming back I mean they're
reclaiming their culture it's quite beautiful to see but it's uh the joy and the connectivity
that's present in the room with that happening because nobody's being corrected and they're just
(38:25):
doing it and and they pick it up in the ways that they can and you can feel it progressing towards
more cohesion and but it's just welcomed in it it's not a performance it's just what we do together
to remember who we are and what what we what we love to do is to express together
(38:49):
power and meaning and beauty and cohesion and staying in the in the rhythm together and staying in
the the power of our voices blended and yes sometimes now you know in some cultures harmony has
been more of a thing than another and some places it's more rhythmical subtlety but it develops from
(39:12):
inviting the kids from or wearing your kids on the back you know uh you know so that that sense of
belonging while someone is working and being and at the same time seeing what they're
you know they're working partners if they're pounding grain or whatever it's a rhythmical thing of
the you know there's rhythm and song in the midst of it and the children are just writing along with it
(39:37):
and they're born into it and as grow up into it as part of the way that you you feel yourself
in connection as a as a part of a powerful expression that fits with the
(39:57):
the business of living fits in the of it in a in a beautiful way and um so when I say singing it's yes
everyone has their favorite songs and their and their ways of singing but it's the singing that
happens in a collective where you hear how I put it I say when we sing and we have a part
(40:26):
and it's so much easier to hold our part if we have a partner or partners in that to help us stay
together in it so a lot of the songs I teach are learned right and pass along are songs with layers
in them and you teach the parts separately and people then stay together by with their partners
(40:47):
and the other part have their partners and pretty soon when all the partners in the different parts
are uh holding their places together interwoven with the other parts it becomes a partnership
and a ship is a vessel and you go somewhere you can't go alone it takes you to a quality of
(41:10):
experience it's just impossible to just get on to you just singing alone you know beautiful time
singing alone not saying I'm just saying that the technology of belonging essentially is the technology
of people singing together and this is as ancient it may even predate speed you know it may be in the
(41:31):
earliest earliest amount of pauses think that's the singing reflex or whatever it was just
expressing powerful feeling in having people joining in mirroring it reflecting and being with it
and so the you don't feel alone you feel connected and your feelings are true and have
(41:52):
and are are held by others in a way and the sounds of the of expression are carried together and that's
that's that sense of belonging and it's the same when you're done and you feel the power of what's
still vibrating in the atmosphere and you hold the silence of that lively energy that is it's
(42:15):
that's also a bonding experience a sense of whoa look what we did we can still feel it and we
feel that heightened of viveness and connectivity um so it's those kinds of things that we do together
that are what I call technologies of and and so the elements of you know and a lot of times in
(42:43):
in like in grief or to a we don't we just have people fall that sacredness and then when they're done
we don't reflect or anything we just nod and say thank you because we stayed the course with you
and just that when you're done when they're finished and they give gratitude for what they experience
(43:08):
both as a listener and a being listened to it's so much sense of connection and and belonging
has has happened just through holding silence for someone else's expression and but a lively silence
that's compassionately curious about what what what is it like for you to be having your life
(43:31):
experience right now in its deepest layers and how can I just stay with you while you describe that
and then the potency of that is is so uh so delicious for people and so so healing
and when others song it just says attention is the healer of separation
(43:55):
attention is the healer of set up a relation and of course I have to take a deep breath so you don't
separate the syllables there
attention is the healer of set up a you know it's nothing more quite as well
(44:22):
what was really beautiful about that Lawrence - as you gave SEDJA you know um part of my brain when
I asked the question was expecting you to go into a direction that was very western it was
you know talk about the overtones and the harmonies and you know what some of the studies done
around singing is that our hearts and our breaths start you know syncing and that's something that
(44:46):
we can measure in science and all of that is true and I love that you reminded us too of this more
intuitive way of growing up with it of its symbiotic nature with with a felt sense of belonging
and and even without any prompting you know we we had the question was around singing and you found
(45:10):
your way eventually to silence as if there was no to use your words separation between these two
different um technologies of belonging and connection and I know me personally a lot of times when
I hear that rhythm my my body wants to respond I want to bring in that dance element because that's
what feels most most natural to me and so um I think what's beautiful about these technologies is just
(45:36):
like they are about belonging they as as a whole belong so well to each other and so there's layers
upon layers of that and I just think that's so beautiful
yeah in some African languages for instance there's no the word for a song is also the word for dance
(45:58):
I mean they're interwoven that's what the idea is and we're human be you know I think even in some
languages there is no there isn't a different word or any of it for people singing and singing it's like
that's what we are we're singing dancing things so in a girl
well as we come to the near the end of our hour together I um I would love to have you send us
(46:26):
with a song well let's see hmm I think yeah I think there's one I'm just thinking of it is
inspired by some words from Winona Winona Ladouque which is also kind of the essential theme of belongingness
is you and I draining this water you and I breathe this air
(46:54):
and then she said you and I live here so
caring for the water caring for the air caring for each other and I added another line
just to remind us where we are on this this holy ground that is this living earth so the song goes
(47:23):
before we hear Lawrence's song I want to let you know that his heartfelt four-part harmony
starts to blow up the mic so I cut it right before the fourth rafter rising verse
you can hear a recorded version of you and I along with many other songs on his website
lorenschool.com a link is in the show notes and now back to lorence you and I
(47:54):
and you hold out that long note those when the harmonies come in it's lovely to just hold the tones
and listen to the harmonies that goes you and I drink this water
you and I breathe this
(48:30):
you and I
walk this holy ground
oh you and I live here
(48:52):
and then the next line is on you and I drink this water you and I breathe this air
you and I
(49:15):
walk this holy ground you and I
live here
then I just I'd like to
they and we so we start breaking down this other ring
(49:42):
they and we
we this and I'm going to sing another i mean
then we warm it's holy ground then we
(50:11):
live in all of us oh yeah
thank you song I know that's one of the things that we teach in song circles is at the end also
to honor that silence at the end and also to to thank the song the song itself the the heartbeat of
(50:37):
the song and its presence and so thank you song and of course many many thanks to you my friend
Lawrence I am so honored and delighted and full of smiles in this moment for having you as a friend
in my life I feel so well so welcome
(51:02):
yeah it's a true thing
hey earthmate how did that episode resonate did it stretch you inspire you or perhaps
(51:22):
urke you I'm here for it so please reach out besides the socials we have a community to practice
with on our website eartharchetypes.com where more earth archetypes can guide your path and become
dear friends a great place to start is the quiz to discover your type oh and on your way I'd love
(51:45):
for you to hit the subscribe button see you again soon
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