It was January and I was sitting in my meditation lodge as the rain battered down on the roof and the wind howled in the trees. I was journeying to the sound of my drum, flying high seeking the answer to a question that had been troubling me for some time.
There was a huge crash, at the time I could not ascertain if it was in the ‘other world’ in which I was travelling or the world which we think of as ‘conventional reality’. The sudden sound caused me to drop out of my altered state of consciousness and I was aware of being in the silence of my hut with the wood burning stove and the soft light of the oil lamp. It took a while for me to settle after such an abrupt end to the journey but then I thought that I should investigate. So donning a head torch I ventured out into the complete darkness of a remote Scottish night. It was pouring down and the air temperature was about 3ºC and my naked body Skyclad? winced at the sudden change. Looking around everything seemed in order so I went down the rocky track towards the river that thundered below.
There was the reason for the sound.
An Oak tree that was so old that it had rotted where it stood had finally given up and had crashed across the river with such force that when it landed on the enormous boulders that litter the river bed it had shattered into a number of parts. For the previous five years I had greeted it each morning as it had been by the pool in which I take my morning dip. I stood in silence whilst the rain sheeted down me and whilst I stood there paying respects to this fallen giant a song was gifted to me. An immediate download. no conscious thought, it spontaneously appeared in my mind, the tune and the lyric just there.
I went back up to the warmth of my hut and sat down on my meditation mat and played through the tune on a flute to commit it to memory and then wrote down the words that had been gifted to me. A few days later I sat with my guitar just working through the cords and without any conscious effort on my part further lyrics were added together with a title.
“The Rhythm of Life”
To give you a taste of the lyrics here is the first verse
- I am part of the spirit of the woods and the water,
- Part of the earth a dreaming.
- Part of the sky above us shining
- Part of all things breathing
- I am the wind and the rain and the clouds a blowing
- The sun and the stars and the moon a glowing
- A babies breath an old man snoring
- Part of the river of life in all things.
My next post will have the song in its full version and how it came into physical form. There’s a clue in this picture.
Muddy Feet 
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