“Sacred Thread: An International Chant for the New Millennium Aesthetic Expression At a sunrise service on the morning of July 2, 2000, the 22nd International Association for Human Caring Research Conference began on the beach in Boca Raton, Florida, with reflection, prayer, and the following "Sacred Thread" Chant created by Tom Dalton LMHC, MT-BC and Smita Chand LMHC: Sacred Thread Om Mani padme Hum (Buddhist) "Hail to the Jewel of the Lotus" Allah hu Akbar (Islamic) "God is Great" Alleluia (Christian) "Praise" Om Namah Sivaya (Hindu) "I honor the divine within" O He Le (Shamanic-Apache) "I go through the air to a holy place" Dai dai ya-dle-dai dai dai (Jewish-Hasidic) "Melody is the outpouring of the soul; words interrupt the stream of emotion" Smita Chand's poem "Sacred Thread" lyrically tied the chant text together into a unified whole. "Tied into a sacred thread, enmeshed with nature, part of the fabric, insignificant and beautiful, like a shell on the beach, magnificent and bountiful and ordinary, like the tree of life. Filled with music and air that we share with the earth, at once, radiant with color and blending with the universe, opening doors, we had never dreamed. Chand also created a mandala to help illuminate this sacred thread. Chant is a form of prayer that connects people to the spiritual in themselves and in each other. It is the primal breath of creation itself. Chanting is a living art in which one person brings sound out of silence. It provides a medium to make the invisible within each person visible. Through the experience of chanting "Sacred Thread" comes the realization that within the diversity and complexity of spiritual paths, there is a place of oneness where people can come together through music. The chant aspires to impart a sense of community and joyous celebration as many voices blend together in harmony of sound and vibration. The act of chanting is a connecting voice. It is simple yet powerful. This type of vocalizing releases one from the ties of daily responsibility and creates an energy that connects with others and to the divine spirit within each one. People center themselves within vocal prayer, leaving behind time, place and separateness. They become one with a global community. This first conference of the new millennium, Rhythms of Caring: A Cadence for a New Century, called participants to reflect on certain rhythms of the past century. The thematic analogy to music seems most appropriate. Many believe there is no more cosmic way to celebrate than through music. The conference offered an opportunity to appreciate expressions of caring that parallel the rhythms of life itself: flowing, staccato, chaotic, lyrical, and still. The common chant provided an opportunity for reflection on the meaning of being interconnected and interdependent. It summoned people to gather as a community to listen, to meditate, and to become more attuned to the movement of all life and one's part in it. Caring brings one closer to others and to the universe as one listens to the stories, celebrates life, and experiences the aloneness and tragedies of the world (Boykin, 2000). As humankind enters the new millennium, it is called to create the kind of community that expresses oneness-a community that reveals compassion, justice-making, and a commitment to a global cosmos. Caring truly is the cadence for the new century.”
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