As We So Love

Chants that Carolyn calls the Long Voice weave in and out of the bird songs and women's voices--"Lament Refusing Despair" and "Love, An Act of Resistance" among others.

The recording closes with "Between Us," a song that speaks of "love for the world I walk with you." It is a love for something that "we alone cannot save, as we save what we alone cannot love."

As We So Love becomes a communion with the land on which we live, calling us to a deep and passionate conversation with life. Its splendid blend of flute, oboe, piano, cello and other instruments opens the way for the women to join in and sing with the same exuberance and passion as the birds, in mutual love and gratitude for shared life on the planet. Do we love the land where we plant our seeds of life? These are the voices--in As We So Love --- that awaken us to love.

Carolyn dedicates this music to the salt marsh on Cape Cod, which has been her home for a few seasons. From there, she wrote a volume of poetry to companion the music, a "witness to the land on which I live." In this volume Through the Moons of Autumn Carolyn reflects on "our longing to know our place in the world, the place on which we he down and rise up.... We long to touch what matters in life--to let go the unessential ... to reclaim exacting, freeing ways that honor the whole of which we are a part."

Carolyn--who describes herself as having a love affair with language--in one particular poem called "Intimacy" reveals also her love affair with life. She observes "the herring gull, a common bird ... raised a loose, unwary foot and placed it down...... The sight is an odyssey of stored meaning. A simple step, a witness to the galaxies, an assurance that whatever simple thing we do in the world matters.

These two gentle and passionate creations of a revered composer/writer are a beautiful addition to the language of the soul that makes the world a better place for all.

Marcia Gleckler headed resource development for the Women's Division, General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church in NYC until her retirement in 1999.

The music, As We So Love, is available from Faith@Work. (cd: $15, cass: $12)

Other articles by Marcia Gleckler

• Who Will Go With My People? - Marcia remembers the first retreat she attended led by Carolyn McDade.
• Does Anyone Care? - Marcia reflects on the youth musical, "Journey of Hope...moving from violence to healing". 
• This Ancient Love - The making of the Carolyn McDade's video conversation between land and music.
• The Children of Africa - Marcia reflects on how experiences 45 years earlier prepared her for "today."