In the summer of 2008, our congregation participated in a summer camp that was held on the grounds of Bridger UCC. The congregation was served by Pastor Byron Buffalo, a lay pastor who worked tirelessly to develop programs to support the entire community. Among those programs was a horse ministry that taught participants traditional Lakota values through the teaching of horse training and riding. The summer camp was planned to bring together youth from South Dakota’s cities and towns with reservation youth for a wide variety of shared activities, including sleeping in traditional Lakota tipis, Lakota crafts and games, using bows to shoot arrows at targets, traditional foods, and drumming. The project was funded in part by a Genesis Grant from the United Church of Christ. Although the project eventually gained the Lakota name Wawoohola, when we started planning the venture it had a working title of “Drumming Together.”

The use of drums in traditional indigenous communities is common around the world, with the possible exception of Australia, where there appear to be no drums in traditional culture. There the use of click sticks is the common percussive instrument. Among the tribes of the North American prairies, drums have long been a part of the expression of religion and culture. As part of the process, a large drum, fashioned out of a cottonwood trunk and fitted with heads made of buffalo hide lashed with sinew, and hand painted by a Rapid City Lakota artist, was purchased and used for the camp. The drum sticks were fashioned from straight pieces of cottonwood with covers of elk hide stuffed with buffalo fur on the ends.

One evening a few of the elders of the community gathered to tell the story of the Fool Soldier Society to the participants. They taught the youth a few hand games. As the evening continued, some of the local people tried to encourage the elders to sing. At first the response was that their throats were not up to it, but after a while they gathered the youth around the drum. One of the elders began to speak about the rhythms of the body and the rhythm of the drum. He started by having the youth beat a breath rhythm, hitting the drum in unison at a pace of about one beat every four seconds, or 15 beats a minute. At first the youth had trouble hitting the drum at such a slow pace, but they soon fell into a steady rhythm. As they did, I noticed that we had begun to breath in rhythm with the drum and with each other.

Next we were taught to beat the drum in a heart rhythm which is a beat per second or about 60 per minute. We were taught to place one hand on our heart while we held the stick in the other and beat the rhythm of our heartbeat - two beats, a pause, two more, a pause - thump thump, thump thump, thump thump. To this rhythm, a couple of lines of a song were taught. I don’t know the psychology or physiology of synchronizing heartbeats, but it certainly seemed to me that my heart was keeping time with the drum.

There were many other lessons that I learned at Wawoohola Camp, but the rhythms of breathing and heartbeat have remained with me. I have refined my skill at estimating the speed of music, being able to come up with a fairly accurate estimate of musical tempo ranging from 60 beats per minute to about 120 beats peer minute. This skill has been very useful to me in singing and sight reading music with my trumpet, the piano, or handbells.

However, a few years ago, my doctor made me aware that my heart rhythm wasn’t always as regular as it had once been. I had developed premature contractions that would occur spontaneously and throw off the regular rhythm. As a result, I was put on a common beta blocker medication that relaxes blood vessels. Its common use is to lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. As such it helps the heart to regulate its rhythm. Because I was not, at the time, suffering from high blood pressure, my initial experience with the drug was that it slowed my heart rhythm significantly. At times my pulse rate dipped way below the usual. My doctor was amazed that I didn’t feel light-headed or dizzy. Slowly, however, my body adjusted to the medicine. My resting heart rate returned to a speed that was just a bit slower than the usual 60 beats per minute. After about a year, I got used to the effect and even regained my skill at estimating the temp of music. 100 beats per minute was just a bit slower than double my resting heart rate. As I adjusted to the medicine, I was even able to have the dosage decreased to an absolute minimum.

Then, less than a month ago, I developed atrial flutter. Suddenly, I couldn’t count on my heart to keep an even rhythm. The pace of my heartbeat would go very high and dip very low. My doctors responded with an immediate change in the type and dosage of my beta blocker. Instead of a slow-acting medicine, I was placed on a fast-acting one, taking doses twice a day at a much higher rate than previously. I also was put on a blood thinner to decrease the likelihood of blood clots and stroke. Two weeks after I first noticed the condition, I underwent a heart ablation procedure that addressed the flutter. It has not returned.

I have, however, become obsessive about my heart rate, checking it multiple times each day, sometimes multiple times each hour. I have received prompt and excellent medical care and my heart seems to be behaving correctly. I will continue to have regular follow-ups with an electrophysiologist, and my family physician, and my medications will be adjusted as needed.

I keep remembering the experiences with the drum during the Wawoohola Camp. I listen to the regular tick of the antique clock in my study with my hand on my heart, wondering if I might be able to synchronize the rhythm. So far, I haven’t been successful, but I am learning as my body adjusts to the realities of aging. I know that there is a connection between my heart and my spirit. I’ve sensed that connection in the past. I’m learning to lift my spirit with new rhythms and perhaps even with a new song.

The lessons of the elders continue to teach me as I too become and elder. Just because I may not yet be ready to sing does not mean that there is not yet more music to come. My heart is learning to sing once again.