Women & Spirituality Conference 2009

This was the fifth time I've participated in the Women & Spirituality Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato. It would have been six years in a row, but my cousin Jenny got married last year on the conference weekend and asked me to play for the wedding (those families...no matter how hard I try, I can't get them to arrange their lives around ME). This year, I was ready to join in the excitement again.

So were Harry and Sam, making sure my CDs
and presentation materials were well-imbued
with good kitty energy before I set off for the weekend.

Each year, I've given a workshop called "Feminine Perspectives on Celtic Spirituality and the Music of the Celtic Harp." The title of my workshop pretty much sums up my spiritual life. The feminine perspectives? Mine, gained during this almost-20-year journey with a harp into the world of Celtic music, and deeper into the Celtic spirituality (and Celtic Christianity in some cases) that informs it.

I've learned that women of the Celtic world were revered, respected and given rights equal to men. I've learned that Celtic women were proudly matriarchal and honored as keepers of the music and the history and the stories. I've learned that the Celts believed listening was true worship, and that when we listen with our souls we can hear the rhythm of the universe. I've learned that it was a woman who set the great harper Turlough O'Carolan on his path. I've learned that Celtic bards had an honor price equal to that of a king's, i.e., if you happened to kill a bard, you had to pay the same amount of gold to his or her family that you would pay if you'd killed a king (remember that the next time you don't hold the door for a harpist..ahem).

As always, I came away fulfilled not only from having shared with open-minded, like-minded women my research, my views on spirituality, my music and how they're related...I've come away inspired by them.

Just one example of the weekend's synchronicity: I was telling my workshop attendees that anything they feel passionate about can be their vehicle for exploring and expressing their spirituality. Mine happens to be the harp. Theirs could be, for instance (and I have no idea why I said this, of all things)...turtles.

And after the workshop a beautiful woman with a lovely European accent approached me and said, "How did you know that I rehabilitate turtles?"

I didn't. It's just one of those Celtic things. But it made me smile, and out of it I made a new friend. And that's what the conference is all about for me.

Here I am playing at my booth in the exhibitor area.
I loved it when people wandered by, stopped to listen,
got a dreamy look in their eyes
and then wandered on.

And as always, my mom was my faithful helper for the weekend.
She just haaaaates it when I take these self-portraits of us.
(I have some doozies, too.)
"You won't put that on your blog, will you?" she asked after I snapped this one.
"Are you kidding?" I answered. (hee hee hee)