From the recording Woman by the Sea
By the time I was six years old, my mother, and grandmother had died. Being so young, I do not have many vivid memories. I remember them mostly by the felt sense of warmth in my being. Since then, I have been on a long and incredible journey of re-connecting to this feminine line. My Grandparents were immigrants from a ethnic German region located in modern day Slovenia, called Gottschee. The forest covered mountains of that land was their home for over 600 years. During WW2 they were relocated, suffered great pain and hardship and eventually made their way to America as refugees. It is said that the village people used to gather and sing under the linden tree. My name "Lyndsey" means "grove of linden trees" and from the moment I learned that, I felt it deep within my soul, a calling to go to this land. In December of 2019 I finally made this journey and arrived to greet the rubble of the houses in the middle of the forest that still lingered from the bombings of WW2. I was incredibly surprised to find, that these ruins of Kletsch (Gottschee), where my Grandmother was born, was the landscape of my dream years ago! The mountains in the distance were the Alps! And the rubble of homes were a top a hill, with a grassy meadow connected. I had been here before. I found a very old Linden Tree, sat under it and sang this song in the Gottscheerish language. My intention was to help the forest awaken, to do a ceremony of healing for the land, and to let the ancestors know that through it all, we made it! This version of "Women by the Sea" is a rendition of a Gottscheer favorite folk song. It is said to have originated before 1230ad. Its full ballad is the story of a woman who sits by the sea to do laundry and two men arrive in a little boat. The woman is ashamed of her situation and does not want to reveal her true identity.
Nevertheless, the men who are actually her brother and beloved, do recognize her. They put her in the boat and say "You are the beautiful woman by the sea"; we recognize you. The woman goes on a journey and when she arrives, she is embraced and kissed, showing she has been returned home from foreign and far-away lands. This story touches my heart, and reflects the similar journey I made to reclaim my rootedness to this land and to my ancestors. It feels like one of the most important and magical experiences I have ever had.