Starting Now

Description

Voicing: SSAA, piano

Level: 4

Duration: 4:30

To see perusal score, please contact Jocelyn.

Text

It is time for us to wake:
we who stumble through the day
with our gripes and complaints,
who drift numbly
through thronging halls and streets —

you and I,
who rant about injustice,
who see all that is wrong in this world
but believe we are shackled
and powerless.

It is time to look into
each other’s faces,
we who glide along the surface,
time to dive down
and feel the currents
of each other’s lives.
Time to speak until the air
holds all of our voices.
Time to weave for each other
a garment of brightness.

Open your eyes.
Feel your strength.
Bless the past.
Greet the future.

Join hands.
Right here.
Our moment:
starting now.

“Starting Now” from WHAT THE HEART KNOWS: Chants, Charms, and Blessings by Joyce Sidman. Text copyright © 2013 by Joyce Sidman. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved

Composer’s Notes

I think all of us have things in our lives that we wish to change, and it can be frustrating when those changes take longer than we had hoped. Big and swift tidal changes are extremely rare, and more often one can point to all the little changes along the way that paved room for the revelational change to occur. We have to work towards our goals with intentional, incremental adjustments, bit by bit, like a sculptor with a grand piece of marble. This is what I was thinking about when composing “Starting Now.” The piece begins with a spark and heaps of forward momentum, and in the end, it’s the repetitive drive of the harmonic progression of four chords mixed with the empowering words of the poem that gives the listeners the most powerful message: Stay the path. Don’t give up. Continue with all you’ve got even when you’re tired and weary. Stay positive.

Change takes time, but with determination and patience, I believe that we can all succeed in transforming our lives, and with them, the world.

– Jocelyn Hagen