Under the sun, tulips straightening out petals, cats kneading paws, birds cooing to find mates, and my eyelids drape like blankets, keeping my inner vision warm and fuzzy – light gently leaking in through edges, colors transforming. I find myself peeking between the moments, listening for the invisible world. The birds are usually the first to come to my aide, their sweet sounds seeming to stretch the periphery of my awareness. I feel the breath of a steadied bloom in the air, a slowing and settling into the heart of spring.
A new black squirrel is trying out the forgotten nest built many years ago in our living room window. The original builder, after two litters with us, seems to have largely moved on. It’s nice to see the space inhabited now. I’m enheartened by the trembling, shuffling, and rearranging body on the other side of the pane of glass. When the little body comes to rest, wrapped in the comforter of its tail, it sends a signal to my bigger human body: hold to the breath of life and let go. I recall the abandon of many moments, and somehow there I feel a homecoming – a return to the bareness of life, flush and blushing in the rain and sun.
I have learned that invisible threads not only weave, their fabrics also layer, and wrapped in those layers, between the moments, I let spring chaos arouse. A riot has lit the fire, turning winter’s ice into the steams of desire – desire rides the breath, re-organizing my body, braiding different sounds through pattern, into life’s spring celebration.
Maybe the squirrel in my window is the return of one of those tiny bodies born here years ago. Maybe our window is a never-forgotten childhood home. Under the fugue of Spring sun, behind my eyelids, a tear or two, condensed from spring steam, remembering a primordial sea on earth, their original birthplace, finally find a way back home – to their never-forgotten childhood home.
With love + resonance,
Adrian + Yiming
Our Brooklyn Events
May 15th and June 6th — our next two bi-monthly acoustic sound meditation at Yogis and Yoginis in Park Slope.
May 18th — we’re very excited to be offering our first Sound and Restorative Katonah Yoga Practice. This two and a half hour experience with our personal favorite yoga teacher Cari Friedman, is going to be a treat. An opportunity to receive sound in uniquely supportive postures — not one to miss!
Oracular Practice
Cosmic helpers are waiting to assist, if we can adopt a co-equal attitude. Hierarchy traps a person in an ego framework, thus preventing help. Deluded enthusiasms force, and thus too repel help. Sincerity attracts the help waiting in the wings. The cosmos in inherently kind and helpful, to fight against it is to fight ourselves. Fate is no nefarious plot, it is simply the universe returning to balance. Help comes through people and nature, not through the institutions of the collective ego.
Some Links
📐 plainsound.org for nerds who are into microtonal music, theories and practices of just intonation. A place to discover a collective of artists and their labor of love.
🌻 Laraaji: "All of a Sudden" live on Celestrana, 1986 remember the 80s? When Laraaji was young and played synthesizer…
⚙️ Assembling a Black Counter Culture Make techno black again! For anyone who enjoys this genre of art, you’d appreciate it more by reading its origins in the Black neighborhoods of the post-industrialized city of Detroit.
Some Listenings
🎷 Makaya McCraven and company repeat, layer, and diverge from a seemingly simple jazz root with such nuance and depth — bridging pensive and propulsive in a novel way. Makaya McCraven will also be in NYC performing a couple nights end of July.
🔊 WARNING! TECHNO BELOW! Boris Brejcha has been one of the most respected staples in European techno for some time now. He bridges the minimal, hard, and melodic spaces masterfully. This is a short fun song from his brand new album. I love the weird accordion/harmonica sound that slowly fades in, and then takes center stage. If you’re an experienced raver, he’ll also be in NYC early June.
🧸 WARNING! WHOLESOMENESS BELOW! Singing this song daily in the shower has been shown to increase happiness and wellness by 86.73%. The longer you sing it the better you feel.
Some Words
the bliss
of greed, anger, ignorance
calls me by my name
it offers
a painful rhythm
to dance
in the eye of this samskara storm
my liver picks up a drum
to throw tantrum
shattering the dream
my lung
sings along
pouring sad song
long weeping song
longing
for waking up the king
their brother, friend
in exile
the heart
returns home
in a long exhale