It seems that since the beginning of human time, movement has been a natural element of the life cycle. Humans are moving beings. It’s an innate quality of the experience and essence of what it means to be human.

 

We walk. We dance. We express ourselves through our hands (some of us more than others, for better or worse). I have a friend who told me her husband makes her physically sit on her hands when he wants her to stop talking because she cannot talk without moving her hands.

 

As the descendant of a long line of Jewish ancestors, I jokingly refer to myself as a modern day wandering Jew because I move my geographic living location so frequently. Part of this movement stems from the fact that I am on a path to create a sustainable life, and so I move as I learn what I don’t want, what I want, and how to shape all of this into a single life in connection with a husband, three cats, and a dog.

 

Another reason for this movement is my dosha (yoga for personality type or tendency). I like to move. I have trouble sitting still on a daily basis, let alone living in one place for more than a few months to a few years. I physically and spiritually experience a deeply profound desire to move. This happens with the turning of the seasons. It happens when I feel my life and my life goals stagnating.

 

As an artist, writer, and musician, I have experienced the shift in creativity that happens when I hit a creative road block and simply change my position and location in my house. I have had a lot of melodic epiphanies just going to the bathroom for a quick bio break. The act of shaking things up that can rattle a new idea free, just as going on a journey to a foreign land or moving to a new place can breathe new life into my perspective and presentation of who I am and how I am in the world.

 

In spending the past three years writing music with refugees and asylum seekers, I have witnessed a new kind of movement, one created by the necessity to escape from dangerous situations in order to seek a new place to live where safety, peace, acceptance, and joy are possible. People want to belong somewhere, to have a peaceful life for themselves and for their children. They want to be seen as people and not as “others.”

 

Movement has become a highly prized commodity in the year of the pandemic 2020, particularly as countries around the world have literally limited or shut down entirely all forms of movement, closing borders to tourists and refugees in the United States and countries in the European Union. Requiring people in Paris to walk no more than one kilometer beyond their apartment buildings and people in both Paris and Rome to carry with them a document stating their reason for being outdoors anytime they leave their homes.

 

To promote freedom of movement for all people, Sarah and I decided to begin a series called “Mondays on the Move.” Each Monday, we will post a short video where we talk about one of our migrations songs and sing that song from a different venue.

 

We begin the series with the song, “A wild idea,” which we wrote at the start of this year about the concept of making all people feel welcome, breaking down walls and barriers in exchange for empathy and understanding and celebration of diversity. We bring this song to you from Sarah’s back garden in the Ganshoren neighborhood in Brussels, Belgium.

 

In this first short video, Sarah Reader Harris and I talk about our idea of singing a song a week in different places to promote freedom of movement. We call the project, “Mondays On the Move.”

 

In this second video, we talk briefly about the first song in our series, “A wild idea.”

 

If you wish to go straight to listening and singing along with the musical part of the project, you can jump to the third (and final) video.

Here are the lyrics and chords to the song so you can strum and sing along!

 

A wild idea

Belgium, Key of D

D

Here’s an idea, a wild idea

A

What if we opened the door?

What a pleasure to meet you

We’re on our way to

D

A place without any walls

 

CHORUS

(français)

G                        D

Pas de porte, pas de passeport

G                                     D

We are all passing through

G                         F#m                G

Pas de porte, pas de passeport

A                                 D

Can I open the door for you?

 

Here’s an idea, a wild idea, anyone can begin

It doesn’t take much, a smile a touch

To let the stranger in

 

CHORUS

 

Here’s an idea, a wild idea

Every person is somebody’s child

Another idea, a wilder idea

Every person is everyone’s child

 

CHORUS

 

BRIDGE

F#m

Why can’t I go where I want to go?
Why do you close the door?
D

If we’re all worth the same then why is your life

Worth so much more?
G                                                        D

Come into the space where you can breathe

G                         D

See the world anew

G

We’re in it together, breathe the same air

A

I can share this world with you

 

So, here’s an idea, a wild idea

These words can change the world

(Nederlands)

You are welcome, welgekomen

Will you come in?

(German)      (français)

Willkommen, bienvenue

 

CHORUS

* Repeat last line