1.  We are blessed with a room full of hearts eager to listen to our big, round drums, secret chambered winds, ancestors summoned and stories sung.

2. Don’t you know that the real definition of bravery is being afraid and doing it anyway?

3. A fire roasting in the hearth, lanterns glowing on the path, stars freckling the night.

4. The afterglow of a performance well-received spills well into the next day, making everything exactly as it should. My heart drops down into place, laughs spring easily from my belly and even this exhaustion is felt as an honour.

5. In these illuminated hours, I remember Rumi’s teaching, “Each moment from all sides rushes to us the summons to Love.”

6. After the music, a sister comes very close to me and whispers that she sees now how much more she can open. Maybe that is all we are here for – to open, open, open until our petals fall off.