Mom and Dad, Manitoba, 1940's
And yet, the lilt of the song seemed perfect in retrospect - a way of letting our Dad know we are alright and we will all be fine - all will be well...
A couple of days after my father passed, my brother, sister and I went for a walk to Rice Lake to spend time in contemplation - with my Dad's old harmonica, camping hat, and a camera in hand.
We had a collective memory of times with our family sitting around campfires listening and singing to my Dad's harmonica playing, and we thought Rice Lake would be a perfect place to let the sound of the harmonica resonate out into the cosmos across the still lake, in honor of our Dad.
I told my brother how my medicine ways teacher shared that native peoples created songs from the landscape in which they lived and we all loved seeing the waves of song / sound waves in the silhouette across the lake. And so the spontaneous dance began to my brother's harmonica improv, with my sister filming.
In my mind I had anticipated some somber funeral dirge that my brother would likely play. I was so surprised as I stood on the trail, wearing my father's camping hat, that the improv my brother created from the landscape was a joyful-kind-of-jig song ;~)
And so the spontaneous dance below resulted...
And yet, the lilt of the song seemed perfect in retrospect - a way of letting our Dad know we are alright and we will all be fine - all will be well...
For a Father
The longer we live,
The more of your presence
We find, laid down
Weave upon weave
Within our lives.
John O'Donohue
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Lee
Visit our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company
Another of my brother's harmonica improvs for my dad...
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