All, together, now.

We are back home from the song-walk. You can watch a tiny part of it here: A first stop on the island of Aspö in the Blekinge archipelago, where we are preparing for a concert on the go. Peter and Hanna sing "The Children make the world complete". Jennifer sings: "The water is calling for healing" and Peter does "We can build bridges from heart to heart." And then the walk continues. And the song carries on.

It was a lovely experience, as always when "Sång & Gång" gathers. We are walking our talk and singing our thing. It feels real and important. 

We are the world; from 13 to 84, from handicapped children to university teachers. From professional musicians - and I mean really professional here - to bruised singers - and i mean really bruised. ( I feel I can say this because there is a part of both in me...) The experiences and abilities vary vastly but the commitment unites. And the result on the concerts are often quite miraculous. 

The day before Sång & Gång started I had the the privilege to workshop and perform with Sofia vokalensemble, an ensemble that arguably can be counted in among the absolute top choirs of Sweden. It is a very rewarding experience to work with them, and I look forward to doing more of that in the future.      

But going from that experience to the Sång & Gång choir is in no way a disappointment. Here we cannot rely on our cleverness, our beautiful voices or trained ears. There is nothing of that. We have only to rely on the present moment that holds everything. We have to get into a place of total freedom from fear where everyone is being honored and loved. There the spirit of transformation meets us. The spirit that "makes the world complete", "heals the waters" and "build bridges from heart to heart" also creates a fantastic choir out of really nothing. A choir that actually means what it is singing and wouldn't even exist if it didn't. We are moved into an experience that is not governed by the usual laws of time. Nor the limitations of space. We are one and all. We are the world.

In the middle of that experience the news from Norway strike us. It hit me as the declaration of war it was intended to be. And at the same time, there on the path in the forest I could sense that what we were doing, in its subtleness, was a proper response. A summoning of the defenders of life. 

There is a statement in the manifest of Anders BB that the attack in Norway is the beginning of a 60 year long war on a multicultural Europe. We can't ignore that any longer as just words of a madman. The detonation still reverberating in our ears is too loud for that. It calls for an answer. An answer that is clear and univocal. To not answer is tantamount to accepting that our house is a madhouse and our city a ruin.   

Next year we are starting our long walk from Trondheim to Copenhagen. One of the themes is "Integration". We will turn this walk into a manifestation of unity in diversity. As the nature we walk through has no difficulty finding unity in the overwhelming diversity of its many expressions so will we seek the unity in the diverse cultures of our time. The unity is a prerequisite for the diversity. Not a threat to it.

Please follow us.

First on www.thepath.nu 

Later on the actual path.

We are all in this.

All, together, now.