Brazilian Music Study Trip: 2009

I am very excited to be sharing an wonderful opportunity to study drumming and music in Brazil this summer! If you are interested in this trip, please email me directly for more info: cheri_shanti@yahoo.com and I will get you in touch with the organizer to make arrangements! This is going to be a fabulous trip! I'm looking for 5-10 people to go with me the first two weeks of August, but you can go anytime this summer that works for you!

Read on and enjoy, and please pass it on! Thanks so much! Yahoo, Muse Tours is on it's way!


STUDY ABROAD iN BAHIA, BRAZIL - PROGRAM INFO

This is an independent program, run personally by Joao Junqueira, CU-Boulder Brazilian Ensemble Director and Musics of the World Instructor- Metro State Denver,
with a contracted local assistant. Because this trip is independent, a great feature of this program is its flexibility. It can serve diverse goals, and diverse budgets. It will be custom made to fit all participants needs and wants,as much as practically possible. Participants will participate in the trip design as well.

TRIP LEADER
Thetrip will be led by Joao Junqueira, a Brazilian native based in
Boulder, CO with strong ties to Salvador, Brazil. Joao was born
in Porto Alegre, and has lived 21 years in the US, with yearly
trips to Brazil. He is fluent in Portuguese and English, has worked as an
interpreter for several years, and has extensive experience in
intercultural communication and exchange. He is currently an
Ethnomusicology PhD Candidate at CU-Boulder, and is in the
process of doing fieldwork/dissertation on Brazilian folk music and
disadvantaged children's music education at a non-profit organization.

You can pick dates beginning on 7/1 and ending on 8/10. June dates can be
arranged on a personal basis.


ABOUT THE STUDY TRIP

Why a "study" trip?

Because you can actually study music, dance,capoeira, or any other subject you may be interested. Joao will set up lessons/classes with expert teachers located in Salvador, Bahia. You will have the opportunity to learn from local Bahian masters
and have a total immersion experience. Participants can propose a study plan, i.e., a number of lessons, and subjects. Because this program is independent,
participants are not "locked in" any class schedule, other than the one co-designed and contracted with Joao prior to the trip.

Study trip participants may spend at least ONE to FIVE weeks in Bahia hosted by Joao Junqueira and his assistant in a Salvador-based location.

Contact Cheri for more info and specifics if you are interested! Thanks

From Crestone with Love

Windy Day
Blows me open
Blows thru me like the mystery

I am raw
Unbridled
Unhinged
Unkempt
Free like the wind

Oya: My beloved sister of eternity
Pulsing around this globe of grace

Infinite kiss of the Divine
Blessing me
Eternally

This magical place
Stillness reigns supreme
It is tangible here
The peace
The depths of stillness
Even as the wind rages wild dust tornados

Stillness Lives here

This is it's home
I am blessed once again to dance with her here.

Pulse of Gaia

Beneath me
I feel her pulse
Calling to me
Always, eternally..

She is the medicine I take voluntarily
To soothe
To teach
To acknowledge grace
To remember truth

She is always waiting..
Echoing
Loud
Resonant
Seductive rhythms of nite

Calling me inward
to the sanctuary of my self

The outer worlds of distraction
Gone
The chatter of the mind
Gone
The business of the day
Gone

Only the Pulse of Gaia
Resounding in my ears
Thru my body
Nature is my confidant
My eternal ally


Day by day
Side by side
Hand in hand
Step by step
I learn this wisdom way

Rhythms of Yemaya
Entrancing
Evocative
Always present
Big pulsing power of ocean blue
Like the blood in my veins
Like the breath thru my spirit

Effortless
Always returning
to the shores of renewal

The Pulse of Gaia

Techno world forgotten
Cars, traffic, rush rush rush
Forgotten..

As I merge
Again and again
In silent seductive surrender

Take me, Yemaya
Far out to the depths of your eternal blue
Into the heart of the swells
to ride in joyful playfulness
with the dolphins and the whales

The Eternal wisdom keepers...

Pulse of Gaia
Frog songs at night
Bird songs when dawn returns

Always the Pulse of Gaia lives in me

Remembering the wisdom way

Remembering
The Pulse of Gaia

Day by day
Side by side
hand in hand
Groove by groove

Eternally dancing in delite upon her womb

Gaia
Yemaya
Seductive passions of love's truths
I will always succomb... willingly
Joyfully..

Polalu Valley: Hawaii

Trembling
bone crunching
jowels of hell
With eyes of fire piercing eternity

Eternal Guardians
Always watchful
Always foreboding
Always vengeful

Some place of evil doings
Terror beyond the imaginable
Lives here on this island

Spooky
Cursed
The forbidden land
Protected but wrongly taken

Deep pulsing mother earth
Yoni fat and moist
Dripping most enticing delites
An Eden poisoned.

What stories live here
I feel the bones
I see the blood
I know mine are here too
My blood and bones

Savage beyond the conceivable
A fortress impenetrable by design

Haunted forests
Ironwood dancing
Featherlike in the raging wind
The wind that never sleeps here

He he o a na..
He he o a na...

I come to pay my respects
I come in peace
I go in peace.

Raining the Tears of the World

God is dumping the seas upon our heads
Days and days of rain
Relentless
Like a flood pouring from the skies.

This island is drenched
Saturated
Soaked
Like I would be
Were it not for this screened
Roofed sanctuary

The rain comes thru
In little spatters
Spits on me and this screen

Sweet sounds
Water makes
Smacking big green tropical leaves
Thumping a constant drone
Like the raging seas
Smacking again and again
Into black, volcanic rock

It is night again
The Cokee’s sing still
With sheets of water pouring upon them
Still they sing
Finding each other
Thru the eternal watering

Rhythm songs
Frogs are masters
Echoeing above it all
They pierce the night
Melodies divine
Rhythm rhapsody ride

I love to listen
All night long
Sometimes it’s hard to sleep
I want to hear it all
To absorb it
To make it part of me

This place
Pure, Free, Abundant in Life
I want to merge with it
So I stay present thru the night
Listening in my dreams

The rain always comes again here
Breathing moments before it falls again
All night long
All day long
The rain is my solid companion

Barely above the wind and rain
The ocean roars
Loud in my ears, I breathe to it
In and out with the surf
Rhythmical
Always present
Always powerful
Wild, white water
Cascading against black rocks
I see it in here
From my bed
I see it
As part of me now

God is weeping the tears for a million lives lived
For those whose lands are filled with terror
Whose eyes may never see
The beauty that I know
In every moment
In every day

Even here
With the rain falling
Hard, fast and constant

Still
There is beauty beyond beauty

Sinking In: Nature's Truths Remembered

Firelight dancing beneath starry skies
Sweet orange disc rises above the swirling sea
Moonlight dancing now in me

Sinking into this way of being
So familiar
So effortless

So close to nature
The way God meant us to be
Eating the Fruit on the trees and fish from the sea
Serenaded by the rhythms of nature all around and within me

Sinking into this place
Inspiration returning
Re-learning myself
Sweetness in this life

We need so little, really, and have so much that distracts us from this truth.
Good food, a modest shelter, community, music, love, sun, clean air and safe haven to lay our heads..

All the rest it seems to me is some kind of candy..
Eye candy
Ear candy
Techno candy
Like sugar it rots us inside leaving us wanting more, unfulfilled and searching for the next fix..

Nature teaches us perfect grace, balance and harmony.
No false illusions, only truth.

Tonite, after firelight, moonlight and ocean breezes
A nice hot shower was like luxury, unnecessary, but so appreciated and such a magical experience
with tiki torches as my light and sweet silver moon peeking in on me above the bananna leaves and bamboo

Blessed are we who get to experience these ways
To remember that which is true and real
And to forget that that leads us astray

I give thanks

Sinking into sweetness.. again and again.

returning to remember
The simple ways of life feed me fully

Hawaii Rhythms of Truth

Rhythms of truth
Sing thru the sea
Sing thru the wind
Sing thru me


Life itself
Is simple

It asks
For nothing

It gives
All of itself

Here in Heaven
I Am Remembering life

As a way of being
Like the whales
Like the palms
Like the birds

Effortless
Simply being

These are the Rhythms of Truth

Slow
Soft
Sweet
Always present

Essence is Truth
All else is Illusion

Slowing Down

Sweet sounds of night here on the magical island of Kauai: palms blowing in the soft breeze, ocean roaring and crickets and chickens singing sweet lullabies to me all night.

Slowing down is such the beautiful part of life. I've been here only 2 days, but feel like I've been here weeks. A day seems so long when it's not full of running about in the mind and body. This way of life that has been created, chasing the dollar, working to pay rent and bills, driving around incessantly from here to there, it has stolen so much from our lives, created such a neurotic frenzy in our minds of constant business. Slowing down gives the space to reflect, to open to the spirits of the land, and the deeper truths that we can be so blind to in our busy bodied embodiements.

I am so grateful for this time, and so cherishing the opportunity to just be. To garden, to put my hands in the soil, to feel the ancestral spirits of this land making contact with me in moments of stillness, to stare at the sea with no need of "going" anywhere or "doing" anything, to be UNAVAILABLE by cell phone.. WOW.. now that's a nice feeling, I must say! I am very much enjoying that!

Such a joy to experience the slowing down inside where time seems to be stretched, where time is NATURAL time, and not about the next appointment or the next "to do" item on the always increasing list. Such a joy to just feel soft and slow in each moment, no need to push, promote or do.

I am so grateful for this time..

Slowing down is such a remembrance of REAL life, REAL time, where the days are just days and the nights are sweet, deep nurturings serenaded by nature and spirit world.