On Being a Bridge

Recently I wrote about the Doorway to Oneness and how I found myself connecting deeper with Nature through playing native flutes outdoors. I concluded the ingredients for me are natural beauty, intentional breathing, willingness to open and surrender to the place, laying down of my defenses and opening of my heart and mind. One of the necessities, I thought, was being isolated from people I don’t know…but that was challenged at a beautiful waterfall.

I seek out quiet places in Nature, away from boisterous crowds and especially tourists. Anyone that follows my social media posts knows I have been lamenting disrespectful tourists that descend on these ancient mountains. The theory that I need to be away from people I don’t know in order to surrender and drop into Oneness was disproven by an unusual experience.

I stopped by my favorite store in Cherokee, Medicine Man Crafts, to pick up some elderberry tincture and talk with the owner about native flutes. One of my intentions is to co-create music with Nature through native style flutes and I wanted a flute created by a tribal member, to offer a stronger link between the land, flute and ultimately the music offered as a gift to the Spirit of Place. The flute I was drawn to was made by Daniel Bigay. He’s a member of the Echota Cherokee tribe of Alabama. (I recently wrote a piece called Echoes, about playing flutes in the Smoky Mountains…Echota tribe–Echoes….this is getting officially weird).

After leaving the shop I drove to a local waterfall on Cherokee tribal lands and took the flute with me up the snowy trail. I wanted to dedicate it at the waterfall to help heal the planet’s waters, a sort of life mission for it.

As soon as I arrived on the bridge at the base of the falls and began playing, I felt someone coming up the path and stopped playing. I walked to the far side of the bridge to provide social distancing. He said, “Please keep playing.”

Even though I was a bit shy, I did. Playing a wooden flute in temperatures hovering just above freezing is good to begin with but warm breath moving through it soon causes sound issues as it condenses on the chilly wood. And my fingers were so cold I could barely continue. 

His ten or eleven year old daughter arrived and walked over to listen. It didn’t sound tremendously awesome because of the condensation, but I kept on for a while. 

Finally, I stopped playing and said hi to the girl then put my mittens over my fingers to warm them. Meanwhile the wife and a troop of very loud, rowdy teenage boys arrived and I gave up playing on the bridge. I walked to the far side of the area and played again, once my fingers had thawed, standing on large rocks, gazing into the creek, sending along wishes for clean water and peace.

Then I decided to walk down the trail, through the large group–my mask in place and some of them wore masks. But instead of walking down the trail as planned, I felt drawn to stop under a rock outcropping near the bridge. I began to play again. This is very unlike me. I want to be away from people. As the family walked back down the trail past me, the dad told them to be quiet and listen. The energy shift was dramatic. They quieted down, quit roughhousing and dropped into a completely different energetic space. I could feel their respect.

The sweet notes floated over the trail, echoed off the walls of the cliff and found a way into the hearts and minds of this rowdy group. I was shocked.

Rather than try to isolate myself when I play, I can open to Oneness amid rowdy humans and hold the intention of calm and love and that can actually change those around me in a positive way.

I’ve been playing as a way to build a bridge between Nature and myself, to open to Oneness. Now I feel called to play to connect Nature and me and other humans. This new flute is bringing powerful Medicine to my life already and it obviously wants to bring this same Medicine to other humans. 

This little A minor flute is a bridge and fits perfectly with my life intention. I went through a spiritual dedication ceremony many years ago and my spiritual intention for life was, and still is, to be a bridge between Nature and humans. It seems an important new ‘friend’ has come to support this mission.

I assigned this little flute a life mission of helping to heal Earth’s waters. It clearly shared its mission with me–to build a soul connection between humans and the natural world… with anyone who listens. May it be so.