There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is
only one you in all time. This expression is unique and if you block it, it will never exist through
any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it.
—Martha Graham
The Song of the Child
When a woman of the Himba* tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes to the jungle with other woman, and together they pray and meditate until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come: The Song of the Child.
After she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches it to him.
When the child is born, the community gets together and they sing the child’s song to them. When the child begins it’s education, the village comes together and the child sings their own song. When they are wed, their song is a part of the ceremony.
Finally, when their soul is going from this world, family and friends gather round and, like at their birth, sing the child’s song to accompany them on the journey.
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This beautiful tradition (apocryphal or not) speaks so profoundly to what we know in our heart to be true. Each child, each of us, is born on the wave of our own song. Our hearts are always beating the rhythm of our uniqueness—our special music, our gifts.
Listening for this melody is some of the most profound work of our life and at the core of co-active life coaching: Why am I on this earth? What are my special gifts? This is the most mportant song there is.
And sometimes we forget and it takes another person to help us remember our melody. This is at the heart of the coaching work I love to share.
*It is said to be a tradition of the Himba people of Namibia