“Singing Myself Awake”
By Harv Bishop
Singer-songwriters from Pete Seeger and Joan Baez to Michael Franti and Spearhead provide the fuel that powers social movements and appeals to our better angels. Deanna Grenier-Mullins is one of an emerging group of New Thought singer-songwriters embracing social justice and progressive New Thought’s mission of creating world that works for everyone.
We create that world through empathy with other’s pain not positive thinking bromides says Grenier-Mullins.
“Rather than ‘focus on the positive’ or ‘focus on the good’” says Grenier-Mullins, “my approach is to focus on the God in any circumstance or situation. Spirit is present always. We experience this fundamental truth as part of affirmative prayer. There is nothing outside of God and nothing that is not Divine energy or Being.
Grenier-Mullins writes songs to sing herself and others awake to the spiritual truth amidst suffering in the world. Her empathy for others was born of struggles with sexual identity, a strict Catholic upbringing, and divorce.
“My process is one of ‘singing myself awake’,” she says. “As I write, I grow in consciousness and in truth and develop a stand about the issues, in a way, that is much larger than the issues.”
She has a different take on the relationship of social justice to New Thought. Griener-Mullins says just repeating the affirmation ‘We are all one people” won’t fly.
“There’s no credibility in that mantra if we don’t try to understand other’s pain. There is no context for experiencing the Oneness that is ever-present. It comes across as empty, as noise, and even absurd.
“But when I stand in and come from the knowledge of our Oneness, and I meet people where they are at, when I seek to understand their lived experience, a bridge is created. By my willingness to be with another in their pain, in a situation of brokenness, I create in the present moment the experience of Oneness. And it is a shared experience.
“We don’t get there by thinking positively or side-stepping reality. The magic happens when we are willing to be with whatever is present. If we shun the negative and only focus on the positive, we deprive ourselves and others of the gift of the connection that only reveals itself when we are present with each other.”
Grenier-Mullins’ music holds both the pain inherent in injustice and the truth of a higher vision of Oneness. She believes this is critical to making progress on social justice issues.
Her song “The 28th Hour” exemplifies her empathic bridge building. It highlights the all too frequent deaths of black Americans at the hands of police. It’s words are based on the often cited and controversial statistic that in the United States every 28 hours a person of color is killed in encounters with police, security guards or vigilantes. (Controversy over the exact numbers aside, the conservative FBI statistic that a white police officer killed a black person two times a week for a seven year period ending in 2012 is sobering enough.)
The lyrics include:
“You say law is colorblind – well are you out of your mind – you must be out of your mind.
In the 28th hour, as the bullets shower, another one falls, another one falls
It’s the 28th hour, and I feel so powerless, as another one falls, and the blood is on us allThere is no relief, there is no peace that can soothe a mother’s grief
And when the trial is done, and the jury’s hung, you wonder why there’s anger in the streets.”
“No matter where I sing this song,” says Griener-Mullins, “whether at local coffee houses and open mic nights, or at church, people are moved. They connect with the raw emotion. And it allows the conversation to be real and relevant and transformative.”
Mullins has been involved in music ministry at Centers for Spiritual Living (formally known as Religious Science churches) in San Jose and Redwood City, California.
“There is so much going on in the world,” she comments. “So once I get the news headlines and the basic facts, my practice is to turn it off. I don’t need the minute-by- minute coverage. I need to anchor in Truth.
“I am and have never been separate from Divine Source. And neither is my family, my friend, my enemy or anyone else. The separateness is a disguise. We are asleep to our Oneness. Others may be unaware of our Oneness. But lack of awareness of our divine connection does not negate its reality. The pain, suffering and hurtful action arise out of the disguise of separateness.”
Mullins recalls her conflicting feelings amidst the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“During the 51 day siege of Gaza last year, I was overwhelmed by the suffering. I felt a strong affinity toward the Palestinians, and I attended a few picketing sessions aimed at increasing awareness of the ongoing occupation of Gaza. I told one of the organizers that I write social justice music, and she said, ‘Have you written a song for the Palestinians?’ I hadn’t, and my initial thought was that I should.
“Concurrently, an old friend of mine who is Jewish and I had a number of heated exchanges on Facebook about the issue. My friend and I, though we remained civil in our conversation, had become decidedly unfriendly. We were both intelligent people of good will, with very different assessments and opinions. As I sat with that, I became present to the value and the limitations of taking sides. Regardless of the ‘rightness’ of the position we adopt, what has being positional done to actually move the conversation forward? So I wrote a song for all sides during the Gaza siege. It’s called ‘Truth Is’.
The lyrics are, in part:
“Truth is, no argument on either side
Could make a single killing justified
Let’s break away from this paradigm, I think it’s time we make a new one.
Truth is – Peace begins within me”
“I struggle sometimes with incompletion and that there are no easy answers,” Grenier-Mullins says, ‘I resist writing songs that fail to wrap up the issue all neat and tidy. I want to bring solutions and, at the same time I recognize that issues are larger than one song. I understand that life is messy. So I meditate and journal and move the energy forward in my ongoing songwriting.”
Grenier-Mullins has free downloads of two songs- Offering and One People- for HarvBishop.com readers at this link at ReverbNation. To buy her Offering CD follow this link to CD Baby. For booking inquiries: Deanna.grenier.mullins@gmail.com or via Facebook messenger
I am in total agreement with her statements and her music. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Frank, for reading and for sharing your resonance!