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04Oct2013
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Thank you Seoul for being a big part of my Kirtan adventure!
Sitting in a coffee shop in Seoul, South Korea, while here for the Korea Yoga Conference, I’m editing and organizing a collection of mantras and chants for a Kirtan manual I’m writing for a DevaTree yoga teacher training. “Om Namah Shivaya” just happens to be playing over the stereo system, sung by my sweet friend Donna De Lory! Hmm… sweet synchronicity and another joyful reminder that I am flowing along on the beloved path that has been set out for me.
There is sublime synchronicity in my entire return to South Korea. Between 2005 and 2008 I spent much time here working as a voice actor and spending all my free time learning about kirtan, chants, Hindu cosmology and writing the many melodies that Ben Leinbach and I chose from for my first two albums: Ameya and Love Abounds. Although I’d been a singer/songwriter for over 15 years, I hadn’t yet shared kirtan on a large scale (just with a few friends at home). However, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my entire musical path was shifting from being a pop/folk singer and that I was soon to begin sharing Kirtan far and wide. Seoul was where I prepared for this magical unfolding…actually it’s where the unfolding really started happening!
So how did I end up in Seoul again? Last year I was contacted by the organizers of the Korea Yoga Conference, asking me if I would be interested in traveling to Korea to be the guest Kirtan artist for the conference. Little did the organizers know that Seoul had been my home as I prepared to launch myself onto the Bhakti path! This is like a home coming to me!
So now I sit in a coffee shop in the Apujeong area of Seoul, listening to Donna sing to Shiva, the Lord of Transformation, writing a manual for a Kirtan and Chant Immersion module. I’m revelling in the “full circle” nature of this, of the great blessings and support from sources known and unknown, seen and unseen, that have allowed my path to unfold with such ease and joy. Thank you Korea: you hold a special place in my heart, you are a sweet part of the unfolding of love and devotion that I humbly open myself to share with the world.