Back home, after ...

New Year's Eve with the Gilad Barkan Quartet and an audience of 500.

I kept on wondering how this fine, creative, talented, gentle soul of a man was once a child of my womb ...  music that made people groove in their seats, brought tears to the heart, and a standing ovation at the end.

... I felt so proud ... tears cascaded down the proud Mama's cheeks at the piece Coming Home ...

And then ... Odetta. First she read from Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves -- Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are we not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people do not feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.

And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

And then we sang all together:

This little light of mine
I'm going to let it shine
Oh, this little light of mine
I'm going to let it shine
This little light of mine
I'm going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Ev'ry where I go
I'm going to let it shine
Oh, ev'ry where I go
I'm going to let it shine
Ev'ry where I go
I'm going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Gracious old woman, still an activist with a strong, loud voice even at age 75, sharing with us many old favorites of Leadbelly, and a message of hope and strength.

And yet when she stood up to receive the presentation of a huge bouquet of roses and lilies for her birthday, she seemed so frail and vulnerable.

Ah, dear friends, it was, indeed, a magical night.

Comments

[david]

How wonderful to see your son up there, filling the space with his music...

A Happy New Year to you, Tamar, filled with music that began with you.

[Winston]

"...It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

...And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others."

Absolutely magical thoughts, Tamar, to match a magical night, a magical trip! You are indeed a blessed and lucky soul...

[purple_kangaroo]

It sounds wonderful!

[MB]

Oh, proud mama you must be! The music is wonderful. What a gift - to you, to him, to the world.

(Moose)

[Tamar]

Thanks, everyone, for kind comments. That particular piece, "Coming Home," Gilad composed about, as he says, bringing one's culture into a different place and blending them somehow by still preserving one's origins.

[Richard Lawrence Cohen]

It sounds like a wonderful moment, Tamar, and I know how justly proud you must be. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

It's good to know that Odetta has remained true to her path over many decades. In 1978 or thereabouts I saw her at a concert in New York and, inviting the audience to join her in one song, she urged them, "Sing out! Because no one can almost sing."

[Tamar]

Yes, Richard, she is still very much an activist. One of Leadbelly's songs she sang was about the "bourgeoisie in Washington DC!"