Eat the Music

At my Women's Group tonight, the topic of discussion was :
"What song do you most connect with spiritually?"

All month, I've been thinking about this question. This has been a tough assignment for me--there were many songs that were candidates ... In the end, I chose Eat the Music by Kate Bush because I think of myself as a Pagan at heart.

To me, this song is about living life, feeling, experiencing everything. It's about Being Here Now. It's about sensuality. One of my beefs with some religions is that they are too much about the afterlife, and all about privations here on Earth. What's the point of that? We're only here for a short while, why not make the most of it? Live it up!

Having your heart ripped out is not necessarily a bad thing. If you take it all in, and turn the experiences inside out, then everything is laid bare and transformed in the process.

"And this curve, is your smile. And this cross, is your heart. And this line, is your path." --Kate Bush

Kate Bush made a wonderful video for this song as part of The Line the Cross, and the Curve where she tells the story of The Red Shoes as a short film in a music video format. She was feeling trapped with a pair of red shoes that were ruining her life--she couldn't get them off her feet, and they wouldn't let her rest. Someone advised her to "Sing back the symbols."

In Eat the Music, Kate Bush is singing and dancing with people she loves, in a room filled with fruit and color and life and joy. She got back on her path this way by living her own life, not someone else's--doing what she loved (singing). She was able to get rid of the Red Shoes this way.

This line is your path; this cross is your heart; this curve, your smile.

She gave them away--she gave her path, her heart, and her joy away. And it was her journey to get them back again--not just by chasing the Crow who tricked them away from her. She wanted to live someone else's dream and be a dancer. But that got away from her. She couldn't control it. The shoes had a mind of their own. She needed to "sing back the symbols"; she needed to go back to her own path, bear her own cross, and rediscover her joy in order to get the symbols back. It wasn't just in chasing this trickster woman, but in living her own life for herself. When she forgot about the trickster and got lost in her own thing in Eat the Music, she got back on her path. And that's why the trickster got the curse of the shoes returned to her--trying to live someone else's dream again.

Yes, it was an important film for me.

What is my JOY? Skating

What is my Path?

What is my Cross?

Lessons of The Red Shoes aka Kate Bush

1. Sing Back the Symbols

2. Protect yourself with Fire

3. Call on those you love, and who love you

4. (SKATE!) for your smile

5. Live your own dream

6. Follow your own path

7. Follow your heart and be true to it and your path