Carolyn has spent much of her life involved in movements. She has stood against apartheid. Marched for peace. Worked in solidarity with Central Americans through the Sanctuary Movement. Attacked economic systems that abuse the poor. Cried out on behalf of migrant women workers. She calls herself a woman of faith seeking, with others, to touch what matters.

One of my dreams for retirement was to create a video honoring Carolyn's music and the sacred space she calls home, Cape Cod. The last week of October 1998 I joined Eddy Bikales, an incredibly gifted young colleague from our days at the General Board of Global Ministries in New York (who, like me, is now freelancing) to spend four days with Carolyn "shooting" the glorious scenes around the Cape.

On the last day of our stay there, this is what I wrote in my Morning Pages:

I have prayed for holy moments in my retirement. More than that, I have asked for the ability and the grace to see them -- to recognize them as holy. During these days I've scarcely had to be aware. They've simply swept over our "little team," as Carolyn has described it. Moment by moment we've stood in the presence of the sacred. Hour after hour we've found the scene, the color, the arrangement in God's creation, that refused to be cast aside by our human glance. The sacred found us.

Underneath the visuals are words from two of Carolyn's songs that reflect her passion for the land and for life:

Long before the night was born from darkness, Long before the dawn rolled unsteady from fire, Long before She wrapped her scarlet arm around the hills, there was a love, this ancient love was born (from This Ancient Love) and Blessed the heron flying in the wind, Blessed the waters that rise and fall to rise again, Blessed the generations struggling to be free, For deep though the sorrow, Shining in the soul, Life lays a wing, shaggy and whole. (from Gratitude)

To accompany the completed video as it finds its way into the hearts and hands of those who see it, Carolyn wrote words which could be a personal or group litany of reflection centering around the video:

I have often wondered what it would be like if we dared to love this life -- the fragile and the vulnerable, the endangered, daring to be humble before the magnitude of our beginnings, daring to lean our species into a stubborn and pliant wonder, until reverence shines in all that we do -- until we live an economics of reverence, a theology of reverence, a politics of reverence -- until it permeates education, development and health care, homes and relationships, arts and agriculture -- a reverence for life, for planetary, social and personal wholeness.

A sampling of responses to the video "This Ancient Love - Visions of a Sacred Land with Music by Carolyn McDade":

"I'm using the video in my hospice work, also with patients while they are undergoing chemotherapy."

"I watch it over and over... always seeing new images, hearing Carolyn's words more deeply, and still with tears welling up. What grace! Thank you for dreaming."

"Every psychiatric ward in the world should have a copy."

"Feeling a bit out of sorts tonight, I sat with your video and sang softly. How soothing it is to be fed song, wind, surf, grasses and Carolyn... all in one simple package."

"My one-and-a-half-year-old daughter wants to watch it over and over. She likes the scenery and the birds. She calls them all 'duckies.'"

"Your dream of creating the video has manifested an extraordinary form of prayer."

"I have watched and watched again and listened and listened again to this absolutely beautiful experience of this exceptionally beautiful person. Nothing you have ever said to me about Carolyn McDade, impressive as it was, or even the tapes of her music by themselves, prepared me for the reality that was contained in the video."

"We completely entered into the video's songs and images, spellbound in their wonder."
 

Video & Music available from Faith At Work

• This Ancient Love (video) - $15
• As We So Love (cd) - $15
• As We So Love (cass) - $12
• Shipping & Handling - 10 %