| Procession Music exercise |
| We walked behind the bier in a sad line. Women wept and an old man shook a rattle like a lone voice in the desert.
Our feet scuffled along in a march of sorrow. The rattle continued, the heartbeat of all our lives that continues for a s long as our blood pumps in our veins. Then there was not one rattle but two. They shook together, not the same rhythm but the same beat, two different steps in the same dance. Wives and husbands clasped hands and walked together. We stopped at the burial place. Although our feet did not walk our journey continued as the drums began and our voices rose, following the old man into his last sleeping place. We sang his life so that he would remember who he was and would dream a good dream. Only when his tomb was finally sealed did we end our singing and our drumming. The lone rattle continued as we walked back, because we are alive while we breathe and bleed and feel. |