How About a Heart Song?
by Brian Di Giuseppe

Heard, played, or made any songs for children of all ages that emphasize healthy, happy, fearless co-existence and innovation lately!? And/or that affirm our joy full responsibility to constantly co-create a new and better reality?! And/or, that just maintain and remember the peace, love, and beauty we all ready are and all ways will be!?!

Where was eye?

With parents that came to Canada from Italy that were fortunate in so many ways, along with the blessing and the burden of being somewhat culturally trained and adapted by main stream media, I somewhat inherited this habit early on, digested it all pretty good, and eventually spat a lot of it out!

A major player for me in this relatively liberating process has been making my own music and poetry, ironically creating my own kind of “programming.” After being born crying and continuing to cry a whole lot for three months with a relatively common case of colic, I would eventually learn a native story that says babies that cry a lot are likely to become good singers.

I played the piano mostly self-taught since the age of 5-ish. I didn’t really get singing so much until the age of 23-ish, in and around when I started to play the guitar, all self-inspired for the most part, which gave me a great sense of freedom.

Leaping from the abundant generosity and care of my family and friends, I eventually began to see the connection of my life-long relationship with music, and the clarifying process of my own life through writing a whole lot, seeing therapists, and meeting an elder bard that loved to sing, and he really got me into singing with some of the many hundreds of songs he’d written. And so it flows that I have become a singer-songwriter, certainly among other roles!

“In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: ‘When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?’”
—Gabrielle Roth, the late American dancer and musician

Where is eye now?

It seems that music and poetry are expressions of deep listening, and so I would eventually become, and still am in many ways, significantly immersed in ancient wisdom teachings. This includes a fair variety of traditions of sound, and word, and movement. It is such a simple, beautiful, and profound ceremony that an individual and/or community can partake in, to just listen, feel, and dance, and/or sing, and/or play along!

Although I have released a fair number of albums now under my own name, (“Brian Paul D.G. and Friends!”) there has been a sort of unofficial band name going for years called “The Divine Comedians.”

The “Divine Comedy” is a legendary 3-part story written by Dante Alighieri in 14th-century renaissance Italy. Dante shared his inner alchemical imagining in 3 parts. Part 1 is the hell part, “the inferno,” as many people seem to know about now, but parts 2 and 3 seem to be less known and/or emphasized by the main stream, the “purgatory” and the “paradise” parts. This 3-part structure is a fine model of a complete story, in my opinion and experience, an archetypal tool for holistic health and true happiness.

Other such key and balancing 3-part archetypal structures absolutely worth mentioning, that have certainly caught my musical, poetic, and life attention are Past, present, and future; Mother, child, and father; Earth, us, and sky; Physical, emotional, and mental; Rhythm, melody, and word!

Where is eye going?

In the worst or most basic way, singing and playing music is an enhanced engagement of oneself and others, and an amplified movement of energy. Movement is certainly connected with health! More specifically, (as numerous studies have shown and continue to show) skillfull movement is certainly connected with greater health, and so at its best, singing and playing well-designed poetry and music can be supremely excellent for the health and happiness of individuals and communities.

Singing and playing music can be a spiritual practice; spiritual meaning that one’s physical, emotional, and mental states are present together, engaged and aligned, so that something greater than the sum of the parts is experienced and allowed to be. Like three musical notes that can make a harmonious chord, Gandhi once said something to the effect of true happiness being when what we think, say, and do are harmony.

So the practice of thinking (word), feeling (sound), and acting (rhythm) a song in alignment with oneself, and beyond, is certainly a metaphor for the way all life seems to truly work, rest, and play. Perhaps just seeing this way about anything is enough, but music and poetry certainly seem to have a special, meaningful, and foundational place in the ground of who we truly are and how we ever can be.

Brian Paul D.G. has taken on the path of singing and song-writing since 2004, and lives primarily in Saskatoon now since 2005. He makes beeswax candles, natural salves, is evolving a northern forest retreat camp project, co-creates holistic/artistic community events, and loves to show up and play for live music events of many kinds! He is also looking forward to releasing and touring in Saskatchewan and Canada with his latest 3-part album project on the way out now. Please do help these wonderful gifts to be shared better with the whirled! see/hear/feel more and/or reach out to arrange an event at www.brianpauldg.com. Also, see the display ad on page 17 of the 28.4 November/December issue of the WHOLifE Journal.