Saturday 29 September 2007

autumn




The summer was sweltering, hitting the 40s here. So summer came and went and we have a new prime minister here.

One of the highlights of my summer was the opportunity to attend the Sado Island Earth Festival in August - home of the community of Kodo drummers. Tap dancing with Taiko, jazz piano with hand drumbs and tabla.  

`
The Japanese characters for "Kodo" covey two meanings: Firstly, "heartbeat" - the sound of the mother`s heartbeat as felt in the womb. Secondly, read in a different way, the word can mean "children of the drum". `




Watching the Kodo drummers you could see their love for their drumming manifest in all the muscles that they had to use just to play, all the discipline and hard work that must be required in the training was so worth it in the performances, perhaps the same is true of having a small daily discipline and focus on things.