It was my first Drum Circle to facilitate, up to this point my experience had been within the safety of my fellow Village Music Circle facilitators (and even then it was scary). Some of them advanced in experience and others at my level.
I know the power of sounds, I know and have read the research on the effects/benefits of drumming for the elderly, especially helpful for those currently living with dementia and alzheimer's. Though, my knowledge was still very much text book based. I had a lot to learn.
On the run up to the event I had so many questions doubting my abilities. Am I enough? Do what I
have to offer help? Will I crumble under the pressure? What am I going to do if I don’t have enough drums? Geez! I don’t even have a base drum yet! Although I was trying not to set expectations for the day, I was still very apprehensive about what would be in store.
On the morning of the event, I was looking to travel 1 ½ hours in rush hour to try and collect a set of drums that my mentor had kindly offered to lend me. It was 10am and I had mentioned to Age UK that I would be there for 11am to help out, even if my session was not until 2.30pm. On my way to collect the drums, my intuition chimed in – Why are you really going to collect these drums? Are you going because you think you are lacking or do you generally think that you need more drums. I turned back around and listened to her. She was right – what I have is enough, what I am is enough.
I reached at the location for 11.30am and it was in full flow, loads of people had turned up for the event. One of the other offerings had unfortunately cancelled which only left the Drum Circle as the main event. Everything happens for a reason, if I had not turned around and arrived later, most people might have already left and we would have missed doing something altogether.
The experience has been very humbling and eye opening for me. We live our lives sometimes blissfully unaware of how lucky we are that have still have full autonomy of how our body moves and how our mind remembers. For all of us, slow degradation of our body and mind will happen and with that the slow departure of our soul too. We cannot command this and all that we can do is cherish the moments that we have being in our bodies. I was lucky to have been shared conversations, to hear about what life is like as we get older and we start to lose confidence in just how our bodies work. A simple fall on an uneven pavement takes a massive knock on someone’s ability to go out of the house, walk to the bus stop, visit a neighbour. The feeling of seclusion starts to settle in, loneliness, disconnection. All this speeds up the process of losing our sense of self.
I felt so lucky to have witnessed in a few moments, the smiles, the glee and rhythm movement in everyone. I felt honoured to be of service in this way to the community.
And though, my ego felt like it had numerous nuclear fails, with my first session that I was trying to “run” like a normal drum session. I gave up “trying to do it the right way” and leaned into how the group was feeling to me. It didn’t matter that I was out of my planned session, it mattered that they were happy and
that in spite of the aches that they might have been feeling, they smiled and played away with their drums and percussions.
The second session was when the real magick happened! I had started to put away the percussions as I was thinking that people were starting to wind down and that the first session has tired them out. As I moved with the percussions, a beat playing in my hands, I heard a glimmer of a hum from one of the ladies. I walked over to the lovely Marie and handed her a bell jingle, then, I heard a next lady tapping her hands on her lap, I then too gave her one to play. Then, I sat down with one of the djembe drums, listening to their beats, to be guided by them. Slowly, slowly, others started to sit down and join in. Those that were talking stopped talking and picked up or was given an instrument to play. We were listening to each other, connecting with each other, following each other. We sang, we hummed, we smiled, and we even pulled the famously known (in my circle) “the chicken cluck”.
WOW! How amazing it felt to follow the sounds and be guided by their hearts and beats of their drums. It reminded me of why I do this work, it’s not about what I feel, it's about how THEY feel. Doing this work makes my life feel fulfilled.
Thank you, thank you so much for letting me be a part of you. Giving a heartfelt acknowledgment to the employees and the volunteers at Age UK HHB. What they do, what I NOW want to continue doing has filled me with such a boost of energy of making a change and affecting a person’s quality of life at the last leg of their life. A simple smile goes a long way. It is a privilege to be working with Age UK HHB.
To learn more about Dementia and how you can give support, I invite you to check https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk
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