Bliss and Drumming: The Slow Enlightenment of the Hard Rock Drummer

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, read by Clementine.

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I’ve been playing in all-women bands now for 20 years or so for reasons I don’t quite understand, except to say that I love the tribe. I have other tribes: my sisters and mom, for instance, that are in my heart, but these women, because of the special situation of so much close contact, are a dearly loved tribe. We travel together, and then we get on stage and communicate with waveforms; music furthers the conversation and deepens the communication on a particle level. We have fun together; we unite against any difficulties; we have each others’ back in a fierce and infinite way. We laugh until we cry.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, read by Clementine.

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If there is no “I”, if there is no “You”, and instead we raise our voices in one harmony, is this Truth? Can we believe that all our ions can be vibrating together? All of the issues we fight over seem to fall away when we are here, aware of this deep consciousness of love that overcomes all division. We can raise our voices together. We are being challenged to find this one song.

Perhaps the dark times we are living through are a kind of birth: a great movement from individualism to a deeper connected consciousness. Perhaps we are being called to move our ions in one direction, pointed toward the injustice that keeps us from peace and happiness, that keeps us from thriving. In one voice, we have all the power of change.

This is from my blog www.blissanddrumming.com.

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How delicate the human being. Our minds keep us moving, thinking of the future, caught up in the past, so we don’t even notice how are bodies are reacting to all the stimuli. We don’t even notice that we are tightening up, stress that keeps us strung like a big rubber band. There is social pressure, economic pressure, stress from the news, the big picture, the small annoyances of moving through the world. Our delicate systems get wound up, our minds race faster and faster, our bodies absorb and twist and contain it all until we break.

I want to remember this. I will be empathetic to every person I meet. What a battle they might be fighting.

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, read by Clementine.

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Today in the little park, the pug was sniffing around and I sat myself down in the morning sun. All was quiet except for construction noise a little ways away. It’s San Francisco, where some rich person is always building something.

I guess I hit the right hour for dragonflies, and there were a number of them zipping around the park. So beautiful and careeningly free. I recalled Thoreau and his thoughts about the innocence of nature. I remembered that dragonflies have sex in mid-air and flashed on the word “ecstatic.” At that moment, I saw a dragonfly just pop out of the air. One minute, barreling through the sky, one minute, gone. It was funny, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary that it, flying, would vanish in front of my eyes. They’re so chaotic and authoritative that surprise wasn’t my first response.

A post from the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, read by Clementine.

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How can the loss of the Self equal happiness if what I do and whom I love is what makes me happy? How can drumming make me so happy and yet be wrong?

Then, I was at my second 10-day meditation retreat in the golden plains West of Dallas, and it was the seventh day. I was falling deeper into the center of myself, and as I did my pores opened and I started breathing out of my skin, becoming more and more insubstantial. A bird outside the window sang a song and the song blew through me like a breeze. The Self fell away. Only Bliss was there.

If I could say I lived in that space always, I would be a Buddha. I would have come home to the light of that honeysuckle. I’d probably never eat a donut again. Instead, I’m a rock drummer. Those few seconds of enlightenment shine like a small pinprick of light on a dark and noisy stage.

A post from the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, read by Clementine.

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I have traveled and played music in every state but one (Alaska). I have slept on floors and been cared for by music fans. I have been invited into strangers’ homes and hung out with people from every walk of life, united by music. I do not believe that our divisions are stronger than our connections. I do not believe that one-on-one, I can not find common ground with nearly everyone I come into contact with. I believe that every single person I have met in my life deserves all of the advantages that I have been given. I do not believe that if I give others an advantage, it lessens mine. I believe to strengthen one person in a family strengthens the family. The person is afraid to speak the truth is lifted up by the other members, and finds her way to love and lets go of fear.

This is the gospel, this is the truth. We are One. I will continue working on letting go of the fear of speaking the truth. I will work to be as open as possible to make sure I say to everyone I meet, you are valued. You deserve everything that everyone else deserves. My seven-year-old nephew sees it. Why not me?

From the blog BlissandDrumming.com, by Clementine.

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There is a drum set waiting for me. It’s the best beauty accessory I could have. Behind the kit I aim to be huge, like a monster. I believe that to really be a player you have to embrace the ugliness that happens when you’re in the moment. Flying over the drums, straining to hit it right, throwing it all in to make people feel it, make people move. I can’t control my facial expressions when I’m really in it. I’m distrustful of good-looking drummers and singers that don’t sweat. My guitarist bleeds on her guitar. I learn that embracing that ugliness is where beauty lies.

Clementine Moss reads from the Bliss and Drumming blog about the re-release of the song "Marathon Runner" from 2008. What is it like to look back at early work, and who were we then? Looking back, we can't help but see how far we've come.

Clementine Moss reads from the Bliss and Drumming blog about the re-release of the song "ShangriLa Blues" from 2012. What is it like to look back at early work, and who were we then? Looking back, we can't help but see how far we've come.

Clementine Moss reads from the Bliss and Drumming blog about the re-release of the song "Sunshine" from 2008. What is it like to look back at early work, and who were we then? Looking back, we can't help but see how far we've come.