Listening to the Mother
10th Installation of 12
March 21, 2023- April 20, 2023
I stepped into the forest on an incredibly beautiful day with a chorus of birds as background music and an energy of growth in the air. I took deep breaths. Suddenly I could hear the life in the forest so deeply, so clearly, I understood I was part of a composition both immense and delicate.
Forest Song
The 10th installation of the ‘Listening to the Mother’ project.
This piece is an exploration of the music and constant compositions being created and presented within and of the natural world of the forest.
At first I thought of a simple replica of the chimes in my backyard that danced overhead as I sketched out some ideas for this tenth piece. The sway, the notes of metal making contact all reminded me of watching the ancient giants of the canopy as the danced and drummed a song of deep resonating percussion with the wind.
As I made my way back into the forest with sketches and ideas in place, the forest seemed to whisper that something more was happening, that I had only heard part of the great composition.
So I sat for a long time
I listened
The layers of my conceptions faded and became entwined with the whole rather than what I defined as “THE song of the forest”.
I felt that the sounds my ears were able to pick up and process
~as the forest
~as the birds
~as the wind
were only notes of this extraordinary cadence of life moving, growing and interacting with each other.
I may never “hear” the song of the sun playing on the branches of a tree, or the mycelium reaching out and connecting with a newly fallen log.
But I can imagine it.
I can listen with my heart as much as my ears.
I can listen to the mother as she sings her eternal song of the earth.
