Sandhill Cranes
by Kate Power
This song was inspired by a book called Grandmothers Counsel the World, about the 13 Grandmothers, indigenous medicine women whose work has been to save Mother Earth in her eleventh hour. The wisdom of each grandmother brought new light on ancient perspectives to my heart and mind. The first time Steve and I recorded this song was on the Oregon coast, deep inside a small ocean cave at low tide. The cave was only big enough to hold us and a few friends. We stood with our ukes as friends held candles in the dark and we sang this song inside the core of a rocky mountain at the ocean's edge.
I delivered a homemade recording of the song to Grandmother Margaret when she came to Olympia, WA. She took it with her to share with the rest of the grandmothers at the next gathering in India. The sacred mission of the Grandmothers is described here.
Serendipitous coincidences revealed a remarkable, personal and unexpected connection that had already been forged years before between me and the author and photographer of this same book, Carol Schaefer. Carol had interviewed and photographed each of the thirteen grandmothers in Grandmothers Counsel the World and, as I soon figured out, she was the same person I had spoken on the phone with years before for advice about publishing Kathleen~Cathleen, my pending book written with my reunited daughter. Little did I know when I wrote Sandhill Cranes how much it would tie into the deeper work of so many, including myself. The Grandmothers' mission to heal the planet in its eleventh hour is a powerful connector.
I delivered a homemade recording of the song to Grandmother Margaret when she came to Olympia, WA. She took it with her to share with the rest of the grandmothers at the next gathering in India. The sacred mission of the Grandmothers is described here.
Serendipitous coincidences revealed a remarkable, personal and unexpected connection that had already been forged years before between me and the author and photographer of this same book, Carol Schaefer. Carol had interviewed and photographed each of the thirteen grandmothers in Grandmothers Counsel the World and, as I soon figured out, she was the same person I had spoken on the phone with years before for advice about publishing Kathleen~Cathleen, my pending book written with my reunited daughter. Little did I know when I wrote Sandhill Cranes how much it would tie into the deeper work of so many, including myself. The Grandmothers' mission to heal the planet in its eleventh hour is a powerful connector.
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