Carrie Newcomer: Being True

Excerpt and Intro From Her Recent QuakerSpeak Video

Sally Campbell, Morningside Meeting, refers us to a recent QuakerSpeak video with musician Carrie Newcomer. The introduction:

“In the kinds of spiritual communities I grew up [in], we do a lot of talking at whatever is sacred,” singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer says. “I really appreciated, when I discovered a silent Quaker meeting, that all I need to do is listen... Something lovely happens when I quiet myself and I quiet my heart and I actually listen to what is coming up from the Spirit.”

Carrie describes how she came to that first Quaker meeting, in the rainforests of Monteverde, and found “something that my heart had been longing for and hadn’t encountered yet.” She has joined Friends in community ever since, and it continues to guide her artistic process.

“....In terms of encountering a work of art, you know, we know when someone is being really true and authentic. When someone puts their finger on the open palm of something true, it shakes the world just a little bit. And why would I want to write any other way? Why would I want to be any other way? I’ve always written songs because I had a question. And that good questions can be asked more than once. You know, what do I love beyond words and measure? What do I hope for the world? When I pull back all the distractions in my life, what do I find at the very center? When I go regularly to the well — to a deep and spiritual, sometimes mystical well — what can I take from there that will help ground me in my daily life? How do I make my own small difference? You know, because that’s all any of us can do.”

Watch the full QuakerSpeak video at quakerspeak.com/video/the-transformative-practice-of-being/