Jane Valencia's Harp Quest of 2004:

Vashon Island Millennium Harper Of The Paper Crane

Sponsored by The Harping For Harmony Foundation - a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting community, local, and global harmony through harp music - are personal quests by harp players to claim Millennium Harper Awards during a particular calendar year.

The website has this to say about the Millennium Harper Awards:

"Your quest must involve live performance on your harp. By established precedent, a worthy quest involves at least 25 live performances, widely distributed in your community, state, or region. A worthy quest should be a year-long commitment; a personal challenge, achievable but not too easily. Age and skill are not important. The key is to stretch your "comfort zone" as a person and a performer. A truly worthy quest is a blend of community service and personal growth."

In 2004, I decided to embark on my own harp quest ....

My Declaration of Intent

The origami paper crane is an art form that symbolizes balance, beauty, natural mystery, inner peace and the hope for world peace. The harp has its own set of symbolism relating to sanctuary of spirit, magic, harmony, and resonance with the natural world.

What happens when one brings these two metaphors together in a community experience? On this day, March 2, 2004, I, Jane Valencia, hereby declare my intention to find out.

I will combine the metaphor & form of the paper crane with harp music in at least twenty-five adventures during the coming year. I will document these adventures with photos and written reflection, and post them on the web. At the conclusion of my quest I will assume the title of Vashon Island Millennium Harper Of The Paper Crane.

This was the idea with which I set forth, but I had no idea where it would lead. What began in the form of a "paper crane" shape-shifted like origami, folding into different forms, each with their own resonance and meaning, each with their own layering of metaphor. The resounding notes were harp, song, community, nature, and some archetypal experience or metaphor that threaded the experience into its own kind of music, sometimes simple, sweet, and playful, sometimes deeply moving to me and profound. As you wander through these little tales or "glimpses" I invite you to experience the events as little origami forms strung with a harp string, blessed with song and an imaginative eye.

In all of these adventures I received gifts: some were actual, like a song or poem. Others are seeds for tales and possible musical and community adventures I might offer in the future. In the end what I discovered was a deepened mission for myself as a harper, and a number of experiences like jewels that showed me the way.

Make yourself a cup of tea, hum yourself a little tune, and imagine a lovely square of paper folding itself into a perfect paper crane. As you sip your tea, that paper crane flies up and settles on your shoulder, and whispers possibilities into your ear. Listen to any thoughts or ideas that begin to wriggle into your own mind--your own unique origami, your own delightful sparkle of harp song. Listen, and enjoy!

The Harp Quest

Before I set out on my first adventure I fold a few paper cranes and reflect on the beauty of my wire-strung harp, which perches before me. I consider that it's been quite some time since I'd really felt I'd offered the harp as a 'professional'. Though I played harp in community, and occasionally performed, I'd mostly been occupied with being a mom to young children these past several years. I felt that my experience with the harp was evolving in different ways from flashy pyrotechnics and intricate arrangements or compositions, but I didn't really have a road map for what was unfolding for me. Part of the reason I chose to pursue this harp quest was to begin to define the shapes and pattern of this emerging expression.

I begin to hum a melody, which I recognize after a moment as "The Magic Horse Jig" by Paul Machlis. A few minutes later, a haiku shapes in my mind:

1. THE PAPER CRANE: Peace
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER - March 5, 2004

And so for my first community expression of harp and crane: playing "Gathering Music" for an interfaith service devoted to peace through prayer--or, how do I find Peace within myself?

This service is an intentional coming together of different faiths (the organizer would have been thrilled to have had the Wicca represented). A family from the Havarrah Community (and friends of mine) light the Sabbath Candle. Prayers from the Muslim, Ba'hai, various Christian, Native American, and Buddhist meditations are interspersed by five queries and periods of silence (from the Quaker/Friends tradition) and readings and songs. I open the whole service with meditative music on my wire-sturng harp. Before that, however, I placed three paper cranes on the lectern, and folded a wee crane for a little boy attending the event--the only child attending the potluck part of the event-- which was attended mostly by gray- and white-haired elders.

It's always a joy to play acoustically, and in a silent holy space. I explore the sounds of the harp, and the music that came to mind and fingers, but I must admit that when I begin playing the Japanese "sa saho ma" song I chicken out of singing. My voice aches to join in, but I just can't push past my comfort zone tonight. So I settle to purely instrumental.

Afterward, I reflect on the paper crane. Those cranes had been wings of myself, but as usual these days when performing, I'd had a kind of tunnel vision while playing--curled inward, not daring to look out on the people gathered with me. Not connecting with them in awareness and spirit, not really. The paper cranes can be reminders for me to expand my awareness, and to disperse my fear. To embrace the people in gatherings.

At the end as I was leaving, the Methodist pastor drops a plastic ring attachment into my basket. It has the Prayer Of St. Francis written on it. When I arrive home I fold a fabric origami crane (my oldest child's suggestion) and slip the prayer into the wing folds--a gift I received.

PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where their is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury ... pardon
Where there is doubt ... faith
(etc.)

Scene from my story "Origami With Tea". Story doll by Lisa Mathias

2. PAPER CRANE TO GREAT BLUE HERON:
SPIRIT MAPPING ART JAM
Monday Night Lecture Series
sponsored by Community Threads
held at Bastyr University, Kenmore

A basket of 12" by 12" cardstock folded paper cranes, owls, and a turtle. A handful of tiny versions of the above. My wee wire-strung harp, a basket of magazines to cut up, decorative papers, scissors, glue, my Rumi card deck.

In the classroom I place a quartet of the large cranes around--for the four directions-- and as reminders to me to define and expand my space and awareness.

I couldn't have had a kinder, more comfortable and safe audience to test my wings with song, harping, telling the story "Origami With Tea", and speaking of my concept of spirit mapping and one's soul landscape, and the Spring Equinox and balance. The group was small--beginning with six (including me) and expanding to eight. We opened with a Thanksgiving Address, where we all linked arms. So how could I not attempt to sing! I think of these art jams as female process oriented, but three men were present and dove into it as enthusiastically as anyone else. We unfolded our origami. Patty requested that I play harp while they held their hands over their materials, and so we set our intentions.

Then collaging!

When we finished, we placed our landscapes side by side--and they did indeed create a magical unique world. Each one was different.... Some with lots of images and words, some with only "sounds" (it seems to me now) in the expression of a few images or swirls.

One of the women--one who I'd tagged as being pulled along to this event, not into it--was excited by the process. "What if business meetings opened with this sort of creative experience, or with a poem? Wouldn't the former help to diffuse tensions and help the attendees to know each other better--perhaps it would even bring forth new ideas, or ways they could work with each other?"

We sing "Lovingkindness" as a call-and-response, as a blessing on our landscapes.

At the end they hand me a thank you card. The comments--thanks from all the attendees--were affirmations, it seems to me, of the musical path I'm now on. Each comment mirrored a thought that I hoped would be felt or perceived. Amazingly the artwork on the card is of a Great Blue Heron--surely a kind of crane.

So I feel I have a link--a clue to the next aspect I could explore in this adventure. The paper crane has led me to the Great Blue Heron, an elegant bird of the Pacific Northwest.

3. THE MAGIC HORSE:
FRIDAY, MARCH 26. Silverwood Gallery
"If Wishes Were Horses" Invitational Art Show

The Great Blue Heron shapeshifts to a Magic Horse ....

This is what I sent out via email to my commmunity:

Forest Halls presents:

WHAT: "If Wishes Were Horses" - an art adventure
WHERE/WHEN:

(where we'll create our own visual & verbal art & sing
some horse songs)
WHO: all ages welcome
BRING: misc. art materials for you & your kids to use & your lunch,
RSVP: Please phone me if you can come! Jane

"If Wishes Were Horses" is an invitational art show presented this month by The Silverwood Gallery. 58 artists in a variety of mediums participated, and the result is truly magical! The show inspired me to create a short Celtic harp, story & song sequence (as part of my harp quest this year - see below), which I'll use to 'introduce' you to the show. We'll have time to let our imaginations romp with the horses in all those art pieces. Towards 11am we'll gather again to share our ideas and thoughts, and maybe a song or two.

After that, you're welcome to go on your way, or come to The Gathering Place to create some artwork, poetry, or stories inspired by the show--or not!

Magic horses to you all!
Jane

(I wrote further, describing the work of The Harping For Harmony Foundation and explaining my quest)


Here's what happened:

My daughters and I arrive a little after 10am, but no one shows up for another 15 minutes. Finally we begin at 10:30. I bravely ask if the gallery music can be turned off, so I can play and tell my story in this space (as opposed to outside on the porch -- heck, I may as well be bold in all this!) I play "The Magic Horse Jig", (a little clumsily) but tell my story pretty well. And I lead a call-and-response of the song "The Horse Song" with the whole group. It goes well, but I do wish I'd mentally tried to connect with each child more, and that I'd spoken with each one individually about what art piece they liked in the show, and their thoughts and imaginings. It would have been cool to have come up with a collaborative horse art project--perhaps along the lines of "The Banner Of Horses" (one of the pieces in the show). Ah well, another time!

I suggest horse art, horse origami, their own "If Wishes Were Horses" poems and stories as ideas of what they might create. At my house the children mostly paint, with a few folding horse origami toward the end.

4. STINGING NETTLE:
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
Camp Terra, on Vashon.

It is the final day of my ethnobotany apprenticeship. The others make a nettle frittata, dandelion root coffee, dandelion head & maple flower fritters, and a wild greens spring salad. I offer entertainment for our feast: I sing "Under The Forest Wood" and tell the Nettle Song story, and finish with the song "Small Though I May Be"

And so my paper crane has morphed again--into the plant spirit of Nettle, threaded with story and song, and a nourishment of the body, in addition to peace in the heart.

5. PAPER CRANE, LABYRINTH, BIRD SONG:
APRIL 5, 2004, PALM SUNDAY
LABYRINTH WALK, at the Episcopal Church.

I'm providing the music.

I place a large paper crane of floral paper atop some "About Labyrinths" handouts. The labyrinth is serene. As the sun drops behind the trees, my fingers begin to freeze on the harp strings. I listen to the birds that start up (or have they been singing all along?). I try to play the songs I hear.

I take a labyrinth flyer on heavy card stock to make into a paper crane later. And I take a handful of palm fronds. My realization: to listen to what nature is singing. (I write this as the frogs sing hugely. A marine airfront has come in after a hot day--Easter).

.... Imagine a great Paper Crane in the center of a luminous labyrinth. You walk this glowing path, and bird song etches patterns in your wake--a song of rejoicing!

6. THE BEAR:
APRIL 20, 2004, TUESDAY.
HEARTSTONE CHILDREN'S PROGRAM - Village Day.

The Paper Crane waltzes with bears ....

I pass around the Heartstone to the children as they gather. The Heartstone had been the sharing stone at the Medicine Teachings of the Si-Si-Wiss and was given to me by the elder, Jill Fanning, at the end of the session. Now, in passing it around and telling this story, it helps to quiet the group--which consists of a number of energetic young children.

I tell the story of "Bear And Ant", told this past weekend by Jill, after describing our gathering as a "red cedar circle". I use dramatic gestures, even leaping to my feet and thumping the ground to keep the attention of some of those kids. (Two of the older children--Amri, my daughter, and Malaika-- had made a stage for me, draping the wooden frames with silks--nice that Amri supported my performance at Heartstone!)

At the end I play and sing some of "Binwag's Lullaby" on my mid-size wire-strung harp I unexpectedly forgot the words during the third verse or so, but it was just as well because I could see that those 4-5 year old boys had gone as far as they could go with their attention span. I finish the song, thanked them all for being with me in the circle, and end it.

The next morning I write a note to the older girls in this program, giving them a quest if they chose to take it. I place a basket in the loft, one of Heartstone's spaces, with a few wool puppets, and a few books with places marked that referred to bears: a Petersons Animal Tracks Guide, the Cedar People stories, "Waltzing With Bears" in Rise Up Singing. Amazingly, the girls came up with a puppet show and performed it for the little kids, as I'd suggested. Malaika dictated the story, Sarah Kai wrote it down. In performance. Malaika read the story. Sarah acted out the puppets, and Amri made cheerful and funny sound effects. Tears came to my eyes!

7. FIRE:
MAY 2.
Sacred Fire Weekend, Duvall, WA.

On the surface it just seems like a gathering around a fire for two days and nights. It is both just that, and far more. In the light of the fire, sometimes kindling, sometimes blazing, sometimes burning in a cheerful, easy way, and sometimes as glowing coals, I realize that my harp mission, "to celebrate the magic of the natural world", needed a part two. The phrase I added on is: "... and to nourish the imaginative soul of community". Those twin ideas fold together into my present concept (as of 2008) of what it means to be a Village Harper.

Arising at dawn with the birds, I bring my wee wire-strung harp and myself to sit by the Sacred Fire that had been kindled a couple of nights before, and which still burned, constantly tended. I play my harp for the fire, with the fire, weaving in fire-song, bird song, and the welcome of the morning, and I reflect on the twin phrases that are like a pair of birds themselves--or perhaps merely the two wings on a single bird: to celebrate the magic of the natural world and to nourish the imaginative soul of community

After illuminating the shadow corners of the self, the Sacred Fire blazes the profound beauty of one's true nature and of inner peace. You can almost see that Paper Crane dancing in the flames, perfectly fine. No scorch marks, no charring, no burns or distintigration after all.

8. LABYRINTH & MEDICINE WHEEL MAY 9. ALIGNMENT WITH GREAT MEDICINE WHEEL/SHIELD CEREMONY Vashon Island

At a private labyrinth, a few of us provided didgeridoo, crystal bowl, voice, and my harp -- offering intentions and blessings ....

This ceremony is part of one held by many people throughout the states, aligning the "spokes" of a great Medicine Wheel centered at the Grand Tetons in Montana--a blessing ceremony for Mother Earth's Mountains and Waters. The intention is peace, of course.

9. CINCO DE MAYO - celebrated on MAY 11 at the CULTURE CLUB

Paper Crane ala Fiesta!

The Culture Club is a gathering of families in a learning community focusing on a particular cultural experience.

In this celebration of puppet show, food, and fiesta, I offer my harp, demonstrating the 3-against-2 polyrhythm, and encouraging others to join in with the rhythm, all of us singing "De Colores", and myself singing "Copla de Ordena".

10. MAY 12 HOUSE BLESSING.

Paper Crane soars overhead as the Redtailed Hawk ....

I brought my harp and played and sang: Kate Wolf's "Redtail Hawk" and "Home and the Heartland" (from Riverdance). We all sang "I Walk In Beauty" as a welcome and to invoke the directions, as we walked the perimeter of our neighbors' new home. Redtail hawks fly over the fields, offering their blessing too!

11. JUNE 10 HERO'S JOURNEY
LIOS Institute, Seattle, WA

This was a rite-of-passage and final learning experience for the second year students in LIOS' two-year program for counselors and corporate leaders. I played harp and sang throughout the day, providing ambient music for mythic visualizations and to enhance their archetypal experience-- offering both Hero and Demon music along the way. Yes! You can play Demon music on the harp. I only partially engaged the sharping levels, and slid my tuning key along the strings, making sounds of icky tension. And I wailed like a demon.

Wow! I feel like I was made to offer music in this way!

12. DE COLORES AND THE FERRY (Fairy?) OUTRAGEOUS ACT OF HARPING - JUNE 12 On the Ferry from Vashon to Fauntleroy.

I dressed in "de colores", with lavender skirt, red-purple blouse, and a yellow veil draped around my neck, and prepared to live and harp big! Gwynne wanted to harp on the ferry too, so I brought the Hummingbird and my Ardival harps. Not many folk on the passenger deck, but I drew out the harps and sat down and began "De Colores". Gwynne gave a brief strum and ducked her head, so I finished the verse and continued further. A ferry worker seemed intrigued by the harp, and I think a few others enjoyed it too.

13. A BEE: SUN MUSIC IN THE FIELD & INSPIRATION
BIRTHDAY PARTY - June 13.

I wanted to remember to really look -- to see the unique nature of each person before me--especially that of the birthday girl! To remind myself to do this, I put on my fused glass necklace that reminded me of the fire and of the sun, and wore lime green, a flowery purple-red vest, and black jeans (a reminder of rich soil). I pull a Druid Oracle card: the Bee, which is about celebration and community -- well-suited to the day.

The Bee is connected with the sun, as in its sundance, and honey making and mead. Brigid is a Celtic sun and fire goddess, as well as a water and well goddess, and is about community and poetry, healing and fire. With these images weaving in the back of my mind, I play and sing on the grass with the kids songs from the Spring/Summer Revels Songbook in the windblown field. With my music and heart I do my best to honor the child whose birthday it is.

... and so the origami folds into Bee, and St. Brigit's Cross (even though it's June!).

14. WOLF AND MOON. VILLAGE DAY: HOWL AT THE BLUE MOON Singing Circle - JULY 29. Village Learning Community event

In honor of the Blue Moon, I lead a singing circle for all ages with my harp for the Village Learning Community. In this gathering, we embody wolf, sing songs for the moon and wolf, cavort in a wolf howl improvisation, and hold a Full Moon closing circle. Instruments we use are harp, percussion, and sticks gathered from the field. I read passages from a book about wolfs, foxes, and coyotes called The Twilight Hunters. Poetry is "Full Moon Lunar Year" with information on blue moons from the book Thirteen Moons On Turtle's Back.

15. JULY 31. BLUE MOON LABYRINTH WALK Church of the Holy Spirit

Circle Of Sound, with their crystal bowls, digeridoos, and occasional drum beats provided the music. I crash the party, bringing my mid-size wire-strung harp. They graciously allow me to join in, and I try hard to "fit in"--to improvise in the spirit of their music.

Well, at this event, that spirit is long tones--uninterrupted: mostly with crystal bowls. Occasionally the digeridoo joins in, using circular breathing. With this continuous sound I keep my harping minimalistic, barely entering into melody. This for a bit, then I move to a crystal bowl.

Wow! The sound and ringing is immediate! I am immediately enveloped in sound and vibration, and now I truly understand the appeal of crystal bowls.

Of course, walking the labyrinth within this sound is quite altering too. Definitly a walking meditation--I definitly imprint on the mandala.

I slip in some voice, with the singing bowl, while playing my harp, and as I walk the labyrinth. A digeridoo "purifies" me with sound, as if I am being smudged.

16. August 6 CHILDREN'S LAMMAS FESTIVAL
Opening of the Island Earthfair.

Rain! As facilitator of this event, I am rather unsettled because we weeren't at the Sacred Song and Dance pavillion, as before. We are on the main stage, and only Amy and her family has shown up to help me. The Earthfair folk are setting up sound for the bands to come, and all is damp. A booth nearby boasts a drum and jam session.

We make our space under the sound techboard awning. Not quite the mood I'd hoped for. Eventually Amy suggests the Kid's Labyrinth. I'm disoriented--ungrounded--but agree. Others rally folks to our new location. It is good! We sing, share intentions/thankfulness, bread and honey, and I offer some harp. Beautiful after all!

Here is are the Lammas lyrics and ritual we offered at this event.

... the origami is the Festival of Lammas, honoring first harvest of the year, symbolized by the offerings of bread and honey and sweet song and gratitude.

selkie doll by Maren Metke. Doll harp by Jane

17. August 7 STORYTELLING, KID's WORLD Island Earthfair

Sounded the crystal bowl, played "The Fisherman's Song To The Seals" on whistle, then a bit of harp. And told the Selkie story. I had rearranged this adult folktale for 8-9 year olds, but on the fly I had to reduce its sophistication again for the 3-6 year old audience before me. Whew!

... I shape the Seal in honor of the Selkie. I have to try three times! But I manage a fun sparkly figure for the young children.

18. SELKIE AND FIRE LANTERN WALK AND FIRE CEREMONY - August 20 Islewilde

Dressed as a selkie, with small harp in hand, I assisted in singing the lantern songs. We walked through an archway where we were greeted and smudged, then we wound around the park to a grassy area amidst the trees. We circled. "Grandmother Moon" invoked the directions. I, as West, swirled around the circle (crystal bowls and digeridoos in the center), sounding harp, and singing Starhawk's "The Ocean Is The Beginning Of The Earth". Later I joined in the Circle of Sound as they sounded our intentions, and cued them to end. We led the people to the Fire Ceremony area. I helped light bowls of fire (alcohol). Then dashed to my car to exchange for harp for my crstyal bowl. When the giant appeared I sounded the bowl with gong and bagipes.

... The Selkie again, and Fire, and the directional energy of the West. Fire & Water *do* mix, in the spirit of invocation.

19. HEALING HARP October 19 REIKI TRAINING.

I offer live harp music during a Reiki healing session. To me, Reiki is a kind of silent music, its own origami of healing energy, compassion, and light .... To play music for healing like this is to offer a sanctuary space for what is taking place--one of witnessing, blessing, and shelter--and to respond musically and intuitively to what is unfolding for the recipients of Reiki. It's a beautiful way to offer harp!

20. November 13. IN THE SPIRIT HOUSE Performance Gift Of The Harps Concert - presented by Harpers Hall & culinary society Palo Alto, CA

As Spookytree, my harp partner Deb Knodel and I performed "In The Spirit House", a musical journey with harps, song, poetry, and community singing.

You can read the script here

21. November 18. LANTERN WALK

With harp and song, I tell the story to a group of young children (and their families) of two bear cubs losing their way to the Dream Cave. The Star Children lead them home. I play and sing "Bingwag's Lullaby" ....

We enjoy our own lantern walk -- in the loft of the barn! -- because it's pouring rain out. Afterwards we share fresh-baked pumpkin muffins and hot apple cider.

Bear, again, and lanterns, and the star children ....

22. Dec. 6. ROSARY IN MEMORY OF MY GRANDMOTHER Grand Junction, CO

I give a musical offering, my song, "Call From The River" in honor of her transition. At age 3 my grandmother decided she wanted nothing more than to sing harmony ... "Call From The River" was actually a birth song I composed -- and so it is here: my grandmother is birthing out of this world and into another ....

23. Feb. 6 2005 BLESSINGWAY

I play harp while others decorate candles to light when our friend is in labor. Honoring the imminence of new life, and blessing the way for mother and child. We all sing blessingway songs.

24. Feb. 23. FOREST HALLS FOLK COLLEGE -- Welsh Language & Literature Session

In the forest with my Welsh student, I offer poems: "The Fox", some Triads. We turn Welsh dialogue into a story. We sing and play (on harp & fiddle) "Aderyn Du", "The Welsh Rabbit", and "Yn Y Gwydd". College in the forest!

Click here for a downloadable PDF about my Forest Halls Folk College.

... Or visit my Tree Letter page to access the PDF from there (scroll down to Leaf 3). 25. Feb. 27 PAPERMOON DEATH HONORING

My friend has suffered a miscarriage at five months along. Several of us gather with her to honor her grief.

I play a little harp for her, drape her with silk and scarves, offer laying on of hands (Reiki), and a song blessing: "The Whippoorwill Song". It is all sweet and sad.

The Paper Crane here is the gift of solace, beauty rising from sorrow and recognizing and honoring that deep river of pain. "Sadly sings the Whippoorwill" are words from the song. Indeed.

Thus completes the 25 Paper Crane and harp offerings.

Do you see the Paper Crane? It is peace woven within a gathering, the one mind and heart of the adventure or blessing. And it is peace within my soul as I dare to offer new forms of my gifts and vision, inspired by moment, by the jazzy riff of the celebration or the painful burning at the threshold, and by the magic of ourselves as we move through the days, seasons, and our own many forms of being ... The Paper Crane is my musical offering.

Behind the nature of peace resides the beauty of the harp, which creates that space of harmony and luminous resonance, that shining quality that reminds us that life and our journey through it is extraordinary, and that we ourselves are holy ones in our unique earthy selves.


Take me back home