The Drum

A long-time first nations Baha’i friend told me how she uses the drum daily with prayer, so I quickly got one. Here is the one I got, along with a drum mallet like this one. This video helped me decide which drum to get, and this other video I find worth watching.  I also got inexpensive drums to take to the woods near my place. Anyone familiar with First Nations celebrations, is aware how important the drum is. Apparently many, perhaps all, cultures have incorporated the drum sometime in their history. My friend said she doesn’t have any kind of method in using it, so I never got caught up in learning “the right way” to use the drum. I find the drum helps me to clear my mind better, so distracting thoughts don’t get in the way. I keep a regular beat, about once a second, or the pace of a heartbeat. I use it when saying prayers in general and the 95 greatest names. I combine each 5 greatest names with one name of God, as presented in an earlier post on this website. I think a bit about the name of God I choose, then say 5 greatest names while thinking of that name of God. It makes it easy to keep track of how many greatest names I have said, since I count out 19 names of God from my word file on my tablet and know when I have said enough. It seems to fit, because of the number 19, right?