Barbara Patterson, Ghent, NY

Every morning at 8 am, I sit in the hall of our independent living home in Ghent, NY with my lyre and play the tone of the day and the mirrored scale.  This also includes the fifth of the tone played up and down the octaves of my lyre.   Usually some residents of our house gather at 8 o’ clock to hear the sounding of the lyre.  The "activities in the life of the soul”– from Guidance in Esoteric Training, as well as the words of the Eightfold Path – are also brought for all of us to be aware of during the unfolding of our day.  Thus another day begins in Magnolia House at Camphill Ghent.

Twice a month, two friends come and join me in playing lyre together.  These friends have each owned lyres for a long time, but recently they had not been playing them very often. Now we are enjoying learning and playing together.  

I am also using my soprano lyre as part of an educational support class with a student from the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School who has been diagnosed with autism.  He responds to music, and, particularly when listening to the lyre, this boy becomes very calm and ready to go on with his lesson.  Again and again, I experience the healing effects of the sounding of the lyre.