Ginna Nguyen
Staff Writer
I’ve got a drummer. My very own musician. He is barefoot in the sand, shaggy-haired, hot body… yeah, that’s a nice drummer. He smiles at me as he plays out my rhythm on his drum.
I don’t know his name. Perhaps he is a man I have yet to meet. Perhaps he is my best friend. Perhaps my drummer is God, composing the beats of my life.
Bum bum ba dum barum, barum, hey hey, purrum, purrum pum pum pum… the rhythm of the drums floats through the air. It flows through my veins, lifting my arms, moving my feet, shaking my hips, and freeing my spirit.
“To dance, above all, is to enter into the motions of life. It is an action, a movement, a process. The dance of life is not so much a metaphor as a fact; to dance is to know one’s self alone and to celebrate it.” – Sherman Paul
If you haven’t had the opportunity in your life to know what it is like to march a half-step off from everyone else, then try the drum circles in Venice Beach. There you can dance barefoot in the sand as the sun sinks below the never-ending Pacific horizon. Go on a Sunday at dusk, to Venice near the main boardwalk. Look for the circle of hippies letting loose the tendrils of their spirits through the beat of their music and the dance of their feet.
It may be intimidating, but step into the circle, open your arms wide, close your eyes, feel the setting sun, and dance to the beat of the bongo. Experience what it’s like to dance as if no one’s watching while the whole world moves their heads in simple admiration of the silent music that only you hear. You will be surrounded by a harmony of souls in an experience unlike any other. You will hear them say, as the Hopi Indians said, “To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.” Go, listen to these hearts. Let yours converse with theirs, and find yourself in accord with God’s children.
Henry David Thoreau once said: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured and far away.”
Individuality. There is a unique soul in each being. There is a single spirit with your name. God wrote a song just for you. It is so easy to get lost in the static of the world’s radio. Take off the headphones so that you can live freely. Curl up inside of yourself so that you can see the world through no one’s eyes but your own. Let go of your restrictions so that you can just be.
Music. Music arises from two hearts’ melodies beating in one harmony. Love? Yes, music is love. Like when you are able to reach out your hand to someone in need of a song, and offer them the joy of yours; that is love. Or when two or more people who not only live out their own melody, but can also dance in harmony with the others’; that is love.
Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the music from another person and forget to hear your own. Sometimes I take a stanza from another’s chorus and incorporate it into my verse, thus enhancing the breadth of my beat. But, it is when I move to the sounds that God has made uniquely mine that my true spirit and character exude my soul. It is then and only then that I am able to live and to love as I was created.
I love interesting people. I love to meet them, to hear their stories and their philosophies. The world is full of them. Who are these most interesting people? They are the ones who hear a tune in some distant inner land, and by opening myself to them I am able to listen in, if just for a little while, to their special song.
Every person has a spirit, and every heart has a rhythm. Listen to yours and dance.
02-10-2005
