What are the odds of this happening?!!

Collaboration

Talk about uncanny! I had shot this footage when I was in Toronto in May 2007. Some friends and I were at an outdoor Drummers in Exile gathering with our djembes. Fascinated by the fire hoopers, I captured a little footage using the video function of my digital camera. I had no idea who the hoopers were at the time. Some months after, I used this footage for the above video when German musician/blogger, Gary Winter, and I collaborated on a series of short video/music pieces.

Two days ago, digging through my video archives, I came across these collaborative videos and watched them again. As I looked at the fire hooping one, I found that something in the shape and movement of one of the fire hoopers struck a familiar chord. Toronto/Canada/the world is a huge place and the person in the video could have been any one of a multitude of hoopers. Plus the video is dark and her figure isn't very distinct ... but I saw something in her movement and form that I instinctively connected to the Toronto hooper from whom I had ordered my professional hoop in December 2008. I received it in January 2009 just before going on my surgical adventure.

I sent the collaborative video file to her and she wrote back saying "Yes!" it definitely is her and one of her fellow fire hoopers! To think that over a year and a half ago I shot a video clip of a random stranger hooping in a crowded field ... then this year (without even knowing that the dots are connected, until now) I order a professional collapsible travel hoop (made by her) from her! Fascinating ... considering the many other people and places in the world I could have chosen to order from.

Talk about coming full circle, just like a hoop.

*******
When I got my hoop earlier in January, I named her Fireheart (inspired by this). She joins my:
Video camera (Karishma)
Digital SLR (Synchronicity/Synchronici-T.E.)
Drum (Dandelion)
Laptop (Satya ... which, interestingly, I almost named Karishma).

Happy 1st Anniversary

Dandelion
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On Saturday my friend Rosanna will be having a women's Kundalini Yoga retreat and she asked me to drum for some of the meditation chants. Yesterday evening I took my drum to her house so we could work out what we would be doing. We went to the Botanical Gardens, up one of the hills and sat under a grove of bamboo, overlooking the Savannah below. There I drummed and we chanted several mantras.

Sat nam (Truth is my identity) - chanted to awaken the soul and call upon the Truth that resides in all of us

Ek Ong Kar, Sat Nam, Siri Wha (He) Guru (There is one Creator whose name is Truth. Great is the ecstatsy of that Supreme Wisdom)

Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung (Sun, Moon, Earth, Infinity, I am Thou) - powerful healing meditation

While drumming/chanting, it struck me that it's around this time last year I had purchased Dandelion, my drum, in Toronto. So I checked my old blog and scrolled through the Canada Chronicles to see when that was. Coincidentally, the blog entry for 22 May (yesterday's date) was also about an outdoor drumming experience, also on a hill with J, who is also a yoga teacher. Maybe the 21st and 22nd May are special yogic-drumming-on-a-hill days.

Turns out Dandelion's special day of purchase is this day.

Happy 1st Anniversary, Dandelion. You are one of the best purchases I ever made.