Music Matters
Music is at the heart of quantum social change. In times like this, many of us feel a deep and profound calling for change. Facts and data seldom inspire the quality of agency called for to generate new patterns and unleash new possibilities. Music has the power to contribute to droplets, ripples, and waves of positive change. The Deep Ocean is Calling!
Reading the news these days, I cannot help feeling a tsunami of emotions. Waves of sorrow, waves of fear, waves of anger, waves of inaction, waves of destruction. Can you feel it?
These waves overwhelm me, and I am struggling to know what to do next. How can I make a difference? Do I matter? I’m not the only one experiencing anxiety about the state of the world, and I’m not the only one who wants to contribute to positive change. We are many.
How do we generate waves of courage, waves of compassion, and waves of creation amidst the profound losses we are witnessing today? Amidst the destruction of countless lives and livelihoods, the disappearance of species, the desiccation of lakes, and the dissolution of ice sheets. Fires, floods, storms. Can you see it?
More facts and data will never be enough. They do not activate the type and quality of agency we need to transform. We need to connect to issues and actions through our hearts. We need to disrupt old patterns, especially those driven by power, money, and a belief that both humans and nature are expendable. We need to generate new patterns, this time formed by waves of oneness, waves of meaning, and waves of mattering. This is a deep and profound calling for change. Can you hear it?
Music is about being in the moment, and it allows us to express, improvise, create, and communicate messages that matter. Through music, we vibrate, we resonate, we project, and we amplify. Bringing our voices together, we can create harmony in a discordant world. We can give voice to our feelings and put feelings in our voices.
Music also heals us, both individually and collectively. There is tremendous power in singing together, playing together, and coming together through music. Are you listening?
Music is energy, and it’s a powerful, renewable energy. It gets us moving, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. It allows us to be not just agents of change, but instruments for change. Our collective voice can resonate and inspire deep transformations in society, and it can wake up an awakening crowd. Together, our individual voices make a difference, and each one of us has the power to contribute to droplets, ripples, and waves of positive change.
This is at the heart of quantum social change, a nonlinear and nonlocal approach to transformations that is based on our inherent oneness. The tones, vibrations, frequencies, and rhythms of beautiful music make it clear that we are an entangled collective, and that we can indeed work and play together to create a thriving world. We must.
I am impressed by those who make music, and I’m inspired by my colleague, Teresia Aarskog, who has used her voice, wisdom, and creativity to turn abstract ideas about quantum social change into a song called The Deep Ocean Is Calling, beautifully composed by Eva Holm Foosnæs. It is a song about action, agency, and mattering.
The Women’s Choral Society of the University of Oslo (KSS), one of the leading choirs in Europe, has performed The Deep Ocean is Calling as part of their Climate concerts 2022. Their voices reveal to us how we both individually and collectively matter, and their music reminds us of the difference we can make when we join together to create something new, inspiring, and beautiful.
▶ You are welcome to listen, hear, and know that you matter.
The Deep Ocean Is Calling
The Deep Ocean is Calling
Lyrics: Teresia Sætre Aarskog and Karen O’Brien
Music: Eva Holm Foosnæs
Written for Kvindelige Studenters Sangforening for their Climate concerts 2022
The deep ocean is calling,
can you hear it?
The fires, the floods,
the silent screams of species lost.
Can you hear it?
Am I, are you, are we listening?
Waves of anger
Waves of fear
Waves of sorrow
The future is now,
but our systems are stalling.
Can you see it?
The money, the power,
the invisible threads of the world.
Can you see it?
Will I, will you, will we interrupt the pattern?
Waves of words
Waves of inaction
Waves of destruction
The future is now,
and the curves are falling.
Can you feel it?
The wind and the sea,
the murmurs of an awakening crowd.
Can you feel it?
How will I, will you, will we act?
Waves of oneness
Waves of meaning
Waves of mattering
The future is now,
and the ocean is calling.
Can you hear it?
The thriving life
and entangled souls.
Can you hear it?
Who will I, will you, will we be?
Waves of courage
Waves of compassion
Waves of creation
In my being I am
a deep ocean wave
of change.
