It's like intense orgasmic sex, but even more complete...

What I love about drumming

(by Kim who has been twice so far)

When you first arrive, and the drum circle is already in progress, I love the beckoning of the tribal rhythm, feel drawn by the power. It calls me to enter, it says, come - be part of the beauty and the power!

Finding a spot & getting comfortable, all the while feeling the beat emanating through my body, I pick up my drum. Slowly, allowing my hands to pick out an underlying rhythm, I start to drum. At first, I find myself making minor adjustments, trial and error of a few different beat patterns. I love that if I do happen to err and go out of sync, at Jaime's events there are so many people there, drumming, that my "mistake" is just superimposed into somebody's rhythm. After a time, I always seem to settle into a drum beat, that I can work with, and is comfortably sustainable, yet allows for improvisation without losing focus.

Then the magical moment begins. When I realize that my hands seem to no longer be moving through any effort of my own. Like I'm somehow disengaged from my body, and have become part of something greater than myself. No, correct that - like I've become somehow MORE of myself, or brought forward the part of myself that is connected to all else. At this point, the rhythm of the group transforms. The group seems to be united. It becomes alive, really alive. It becomes it's own living and breathing thing. A fantastic, wild, loving, powerful, raw and pure thing. It reverberates through the group (the tribe), it is composed of elements that we all have a part in contributing to. We let go. And just "be" with it. This amazing rhythm we have created yet creates itself. 

After a time, the intensity starts to soften, without losing the unity. Gently, gradually, we allow it to come to a stop. The feeling thereafter is of complete and total peace. Similar to the feeling after wonderfully intense orgasmic sex, but even more complete. The rhythm has been satisfied. My soul is glowing, happy, and at peace.