Make It Count

“Make it Count” is a new song I recently started working on, about making every word and deed count. That all words and actions would be mindful and conscious – for that is the art of truly and fully living the gift of life. My many responsibilities have prevented me from completing the song yet, but this morning I was gifted a real life experience of what that song means to me….

A little over a year ago, I started gatherings in Los Angeles called Sacred Song Circle. I loved it so much – singing with my tribe of music lovers diving into the devotional waves of sound and song. After about a year of monthly gatherings, I decided to transform these events into twice yearly full-day workshops called The Yoga of Voice & Vibration which you can find info about on the greater website here.

At the very last song circle gathering, a lovely woman from another community of which I am a part, made a heroic effort to attend, having broken her hip and slow to mend. She came anyway, and ascended the two flight of stairs into the lovely Rising Lotus main room. I was delighted to see her and deeply touched that she attended this last event, in spite of the difficulties she had getting there. She told me that she had been a bit depressed with how slow her body was to heal and that singing with me and the group that night lifted her spirits tremendously. Again, I was touched by her words and have thought of her many times since then.

This morning, my Rabbi called to tell me that Doris passed in the wee hours of the morning today…. my heart broke. I didn’t even know she was sick to that degree. Reb Miriam said no one knew…. It seems that at the time of the hip surgery, Doris had been informed that she had metastatic cancer. Doris refused to believe it and chose no intervention. Reb Miriam said that Doris was never in any pain.  I am so happy to know that… But how I wished I could have gone to sit with her and sing or play harp or bring my singing bowl to her…..

And, then, Rabbi Miriam told me that in the final two hours before Doris passed, as she sat with Doris in the hospital, she told Reb Miriam that she was dying. Reb Miriam said, yes, she knew that. And Doris asked Reb Miriam, “would you be able to have Kimberly sing B’yado with Gary at my funeral?”

The flood gates of my heart broke open and tears flowed…. this beautiful being – who I did not know well, but upon whom I had imprinted in some strong way – uttered my name in the hours before she transitioned from this plane of existence…. my song, my music…. meant something to her…. touched her deeply in some way, that she was calling forth my presence in the last breaths of her earthly life.

I am deeply humbled… deeply humbled… and the clarity of how much everything counts is palpable here this morning….

Yes. Make it count. Make it all count. Every word. Every deed.