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Oceana Sawyer's avatar

Love this conversation! First of all, I wondered if soundscape were enough to restore a coral reef in the face of the complexity of pollution and climate change, so I appreciate the links to resources.

But mostly I am captivated by this idea of soundscapes as a way to regenerate life of any kind. Call & response is a well known and well honed concept among my people for strategizing, protection, and revival. The latter being in popular use still today.

It seems that all beings have this ability to send out a vibration, a sound, a call attuned to attraction or repulsion depending on the circumstance. What is the vibration, the sound, the call I would make if I wanted to grow, to call back, to attract the kind of community that will thrive in this place I’m naming Sanctuary for Kin?

As tender and dynamic as a body in an ephemeral dance with functioning, you have me thinking newly about larval relationships with people and place, and what are the songs, the vibrations that generate and revitalize.

Grateful as always.

Sophie Strand's avatar

I so hope we can remember our ability to tune back into the vibration! I, too, was stunned when I read that it actually worked. It seemed like magic!!

Oceana Sawyer's avatar

Sitting in this inquiry, a recollection came from this delicious collaboration between Toshi Reagan and Alexis Pauline Gumbs: https://toshireagon.bandcamp.com/album/held-alexis-pauline-gumbs-and-toshi-reagon

Rev Wakil David Matthews's avatar

One of our guests on our End of Life Conversations podcast told us her son visited her after he died to specifically make sure she knew, what survives the death and letting go of the body is music.

Sophie Strand's avatar

Oh I love this so much 🥹

Adam Finn's avatar

Love this so much, Sophie 💛🎷

Melissa Ferguson's avatar

The day I read this article, I happened to be hiking and heard bluegrass music coming from somewhere across the hills. It was remarkable how I was immediately drawn towards the sound. It was like hearing your family celebrating and wanting to join in.

Sophie Strand's avatar

Oh I love that weird doubling!!! 🎶 🎻

Ariel Pasternak's avatar

So very moved by this idea of acoustic enrichment!

Thank you so much for planting this idea into my field: "A chorus of festivity can create the very party it imitates. The sound of health can inspire a healthy community to grow where there was only barrenness or an empty field before."

Sophie Strand's avatar

Thank you Ariel!!

Child of the Multiverse's avatar

How beautiful, we so need this. Deep thanks and healing sounds to you 🌿🎶🌑💚🌸🎵

Nan Hutton's avatar

Love the call to joyous community…the intention cultivates the outcome. Brilliant! As usual…

Steven Schwartzberg's avatar

I spent two summers when I was in high school at the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute’s “Seacamp” on Big Pine Key Florida. The memories of coral reefs live in my bones. The sounds, sights, smells, and lives full of color and grace fill my memories and define for me the abundance that I think the Earth gives to all of us in various forms and ways if only we will share it. I am so glad to learn that this gift, at least in this case, can be reciprocated by the science that has done so much to destroy it, particularly the science of economics with its twisted foundation in “scarcity” rather than in the gift exchange that is the basis of true wealth. Thank you for this wonderful imagery! https://www.seacamp.org/Seacamp in Big Pine Key, FL

Anna Wermuth's avatar

Feeling this sooo deeply once again, and remembering so fondly my brief encounters with coral reefs, and the exuberant crackles that popped in my ears while floating above them 🧡 thank you Sophie dearest. Sending symphonic sunsets your way.