I woke up early Saturday morning and headed to Park Slope in Brooklyn to give a Joyful Rhythms workshop to a group of women from the Joyful Heart Foundation. The day was about experiencing our heart rhythms through drumming circles, movement, meditation, and reflection. After many attempts to get into the yoga center, we realized we didn’t have a key to one of the locks. We waited outside the door and shortly before the group arrived, a locksmith pulled up and changed the lock. I smiled and said, “Isn’t this the way of it. How often do we close our own hearts and need a locksmith to open it and let love in?” And so the workshop began with a locked door and finished with open hearts.
Some of the women had never played a drum before. One of the participants from the workshop wrote an amazing poem after her experience of the day that she read to the group and provided to me to post.
I am a descendant of the drum.
Loud, mighty and strong is where I come from.
It’s love is a language that courses through my veins
If you strip away all other noise my truth remains.
– Tomika Anderson
And so, we are all descendants of the drum moving with joy and opening our hearts.
Joy-filled rhythms, always,
Mary Anne
Much love and gratitude to Allison Talis and everyone at the Joyful Heart Foundation~