Understanding complexity of the being many cultures and religions all in one provides Miriam Toukan an intriguing flavor and sensory perspective, which she shares lovingly through her songs and legal work with the world to create peaceful change. Enjoy bathing in her voice during todays episode...
Early in her childhood, living in a multicultural and pluralistic country as Israel, Miriam Toukan observed how she could move hearts with her songs and how it became a first step in making changes. As with her legal work she provides women an outlet to trust their voices. Enjoy...
Miriam's recent song Trust Your Voice, that we spoke about: https://youtu.be/fdtxZ6knjqg
Learn more about Miriam Toukan and her beautiful music on her Website: https://miriamtoukan.com/biography
Miriam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miriamtoukan
Here is the original video of Prayers of the Mothers by Yael Deckelbaum, in which Miriam sings and performed for us in Berlin in 2017: https://youtu.be/YyFM-pWdqrY
Watch the video of Episode 78 with Miriam Toukan on our YouTube channel Moving To Oneness: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzEWKXR957EmpmXvG9Ygbhw
You are invited to bring your wisdom and powerful energy over to our Fb group where you can share it with us and others. Feel welcomed and comforted in our community. https://www.facebook.com/groups/movingtooneness
You can request a topic of your choice to be spoken about or a song to be sung for you on a future podcast. Just let us know. :)
In Love and Light,
Meilin
Moving to oneness, nourishing curiosity, embracing differences, becoming One.
[00:00:45] Meilin Ehlke:
Music touches our heart deeply. Everything can unfold from this moment. So today I have a wonderful guest who brings out sounds of peace, of beauty and much more. So, please stay tuned to today's episode of the Moving To Oneness podcast. Hello, I'm your host Meilin Ehlke. I'm sitting in Germany. It's a beautiful day. You can feel that spring is emerging. My guest is in Spain, that's her newfound love the whole culture of Andalusia and, that essence, that she's experiencing at the moment, she's also bringing into her music at the moment. So, welcome with me all the way from Spain Córdoba, Miriam Toukan. Hallo. How are you?
[00:01:45] Miriam Toukan:
Hello? I am fine. Thank you, Meilin.
[00:01:47] Meilin Ehlke:
And everyone. I met Miriam about five years ago. The first time I saw you, Miriam was in a video. In a video, not of [00:02:00] you, but of Yael Deckelbaum and she sang, with many women, the 'Prayers of the Mothers'.
[00:02:09] Miriam Toukan: Yes
[00:02:10] Meilin Ehlke:
That song, I don't know every time still now, when I hear it, when I watch it, I cry. I can feel the love of the pain, the peace, the movement, what mothers want for themselves and especially, for their children. Right? That they can grow into what they are. And I saw you singing in that video of one of the women. And I would've never believed, that one day I would sit next to you in Berlin. Right?
And we were able to talk so beautifully over a lunch, and we had this deep connection. And why did you come to Berlin? I didn't share that at this time. I was organizing with a friend and other women, a Peace March in Berlin, where we had invited, you and Yael to come and sing, first one evening in the church that was a beautiful concert. And then on the next day to do the March through Berlin ending at the Brandenburger Tor.
[00:03:16] Miriam Toukan: Yes.
[00:03:16] Meilin Ehlke: You again, held a beautiful new concert with many other musicians.
[00:03:22] Miriam Toukan: It was fascinating.
[00:03:23] Meilin Ehlke:
We did a beautiful ritual there. That's not so much the topic today. Today I really wanna hone into you. But I remember that's five years ago.
For the audience, listen to this, if you sense and sit next to someone like I did at lunch, on that Thursday, I just also arrived, I had gotten up early, you had also just arrived. We were both very tired. I had come from Italy. You had come from Israel that day, but there is a connection. We both felt right away. We knew we would see each other again.
[00:03:55] Miriam Toukan: Yes.
[00:03:55] Meilin Ehlke: We would collaborate one day and that trust and knowing and too letting that unfold is, so important. And I'm so happy to have you then here today.
[00:04:09] Miriam Toukan:
I am very excited and happy too. And, I could see also what happened since these marches five years ago in Berlin, in Spain, in Brazil and it's going on and on. And it makes me feel that people are realizing the power and the lead, the necessity of the lead of the women in these times.
[00:04:35] Meilin Ehlke:
Yeah, because we come with different ways of thinking, right. And for me often, Miriam, I think now I am a mother myself of one child, he is now 15.
[00:04:49] Miriam Toukan: Wow.
[00:04:49] Meilin Ehlke:
To bring out the optimal and not to restrict. Yeah. And for him to be who he is fully. And on the other side, my son influenced me to be the most beautiful woman I could be and to live my truth and my purity.
[00:05:08] Miriam Toukan: Beautiful. Beautiful...
[00:05:08] Meilin Ehlke:
and this is what I also intend for many others to experience and to not listen too much to our social settings, our culture,
[00:05:19] Miriam Toukan: Yes
[00:05:20] Meilin Ehlke:
our restrictions and create these deep relationship first with your own child. But also with mothers, that's a whole different story. This is a whole new topic, but that we mothers toward each other see and sense the deep connection we have because, deep inside, we all want the same. That we all can blossom, can see the beauty of the world and can express our voices. And that's what you sing all the time about. You sing about being yourself about seeing others, how they are. I would like to invite you to share a little bit more of your personal upbringing, because you are such a multifaceted woman.
Yeah, you come from different cultures. You lived with a certain origin and a different culture. Now you chose because you fell in love with a new place. You have to share about that.
[00:06:25] Miriam Toukan: Yeah.
[00:06:26] Meilin Ehlke:
And then even different profession and you still have this creative urge to never stop to sing. Share a little bit with the world about you.
[00:06:36] Miriam Toukan:
It all started, I can say maybe from the first word that I said in my life. I was 11 months in the hands of my father. And instead to say Mama or Papa or Yaba, I said tiara. Tiara is a plane of the war, an airplane, and I was born in a year of conflicts in Israel, Palestine and in Lebanon.
So, in a very early age, I could felt maybe the intention. I heard some words, and this is the words that stuck into my mind as a baby. Later on, in the age four, my mom discovered that I like to sing. I was even acting outside of the house and holding something in my hand and singing for all the neighborhood.
And I like it. I liked it so much more than even playing with my friends and I had my own way to express things inside me and I felt sadness. I remember the sadness as a child, and I was asking a lot of questions about the others, because I was curious. I knew that there are children that are talking different language than my language.
They're in different colors. They're in different born in a multicultural and pluralistic country like Israel. And I could see also my family when I saw my grandmother crying and I asked her why she's crying. And she was explaining that she missed her brothers and her sisters.
And I didn't understand as a child why she couldn't see them. They were living in Lebanon, Canada, Australia, because they left in the year 48, in the Naksa or when Israel occupied Palestine and started another country here. So, as a child, I had these many questions. And in the same time I born in a home that, told me to love the other, to love the people. Without giving importance for the religion. I was born in a village where Muslims and Christians live together.
[00:08:55] Meilin Ehlke: Wonderful.
[00:08:55] Miriam Toukan:
We are studying together in the schools and my neighbors from the other villages are Jewish. So as a child, I could see this diversity and in the same time, I see my parents welcoming everyone and never judge anybody.
And I only knew facts, but As a child, I was searching for my own identity as an Arab born in a Palestinian family in a Jewish country in Israel and also being woman. So all this was such a bit heavy for a child, but through my life and through the station that I passed in my life, I arrived to a very important station where I accepted and I loved all this mixture and I found, this is my reality.
This is me and I really started to love it after many, many years where I was lost. And I was searching [00:10:00] who I am and I found out that I am all of this and I don't need to choose, I don't have to choose, any of these identities. And it comes together with my own way for believing in peace and in women leadership and power to change things, to be against the violence everywhere. For me, war is the also violence, of course. So, this was my way for the peace and for making people get closer by my music, my word that I sing. And, since I was little child, I could see how music and art move hearts. And when you start with moving the hearts, this is the first step to make changes.
I could see as a child, the power of this tool in my hand, because I could see how it influenced really, the body, the face, the mentality, the attitude of the people. I found that getting together my music, my mix of identities, my reality and my history.
And, this is why I believe in the music, I believe in working and uniting together the women to raise the voice for children, to teach our children, to guide our children, to learn from our children. Like you said Meilin and I agree with you because I don't have my own children, but I have the children of the world that are in my life and my nieces and I learn a lot from them and they're the biggest inspiration for my path.
[00:11:44] Meilin Ehlke:
Mm, that's so beautiful. You're a fascinating woman. I want to speak about, the peace before we go on. So, both of us have this intense sense of what is going on. I experienced the same as a child. I closed down a little bit that state now living more my gifts also sound bringing that out. Totally different than you. I've been silent for many, many years around that age, when you decided to sing to have your outlet. I used it through emanating energy, so whatever, and to stay fine tuned. And it's interesting. I can really understand you. And there are many others too, when we are mixed.
So, I have a mother that escaped from East Germany. Right. And my dad is American, but he came over with the military. They still both, live here in Germany, but then I also lived in five different countries.
[00:12:41] Miriam Toukan: Wow..
[00:12:41] Meilin Ehlke:
And it is the search of who am I? And what am I? And I had to move to the US to understand a little bit my father. Now I have to learn a little bit more about my mother's side. I traveled more into her areas, like the Erzgebirge, where I wasn't allowed to go as a child because of the wall.
[00:13:02] Miriam Toukan: Yeah.
[00:13:02] Meilin Ehlke:
But it is in my name, like you, Miriam it's within you to bring out this peacefulness. So, we are both born with that, independent of where we have been put in the world.
And luckily there are probably a lot of listeners and viewers that have the same purpose of emanating out this wonderful calming energy, inspiration, and also the little fight. So everyone, Miriam is also a lawyer. So, she does sing beautifully and travel the world to bring her voice too many because, you need to feel her energy.
Miriam, you have this ultra long hair. You are tall. You have a presence, you have a presence that is elegant. There is a sturdiness to you. There is a surety, a purity. And when you stand alone on a stage, or you are surrounded by many musicians or collaborate singers, there comes a wave of love, of peace, that envelopes. Even, you barely move, but it's hard to explain everyone, but that's what, how I see and sense Miriam. And I also sense this awkward, but I'm gonna speak it out. You're now really starting out to even get larger, not just larger, as your, let's say radius, how you ripple out your words, your sounds through the world and the cosmos.
Right? But also, you are gonna be asked to sing so much more because more people are going to sense and understand and desire, what you bring to them. So, share a little bit also the fierceness. The lawyer for me in you is, a little bit, not a fight, but there's a little bit of, you wanted to understand also what is possible and you wanted to understand the restrictions.
And I think that is so important. As I was just speaking how you emanate out everything into the world, that there is also and you have an understanding of how, and when you come to certain boundaries you know how to dissolve those boundaries, how to dissolve with your words that maybe in that moment are not song, but there's still a vibration to them.
And to choose the right word. For me, lawyer and means you craft, it's the art of the word or the written word or the spoken word. In a way you are a warrior, a fighter, but at the same time, because you're such a loving, peaceful softness, you have your unique way of combining. Speak a little bit about that, please.
[00:16:08] Miriam Toukan: For me when choose to study law, I choose it for, I really wanted to be an expert and to understand, what is the law of this area, where I am living and to have the tools, not only to work as a musician. I thought I can also be a voice for women, for people that need real help in existing and living and to have the rights in this country. And also as an Arab it's very common to search for a subject and for a profession and job that gives you security and to live in respect and without fears. So, if you look around in the Israeli community, the Arabic community, you can see that women are searching for professions as, doctors and lawyers and, to get into the life in Israel and into the society, with powerful tool as a professional person.
So, in my family also, They supported, everyone many, many, many years to be educated, no matter what profession, but to have the education, the high education in the academies, to be able, to stand on front of the challenges of this life, in this zone.
I loved law as a person, that thought when you study law, you study about justice, about rights, about, how to have the certification and the possibility to raise your voice for other people and for other children that I thought, oh, all my life about no matter. I'm not talking about specifically for Arabs or for Jews or any person in need or for any child in need. So this was my goal. And of course first of all, the voices of the women and, it's naturally, I thought about the Arabic women because the Arabic women have not only the challenges in the level of the state or the country, but the challenges in the society, in the Arabic society as a woman, in a conservative society where she faces a lot of humiliation, violence, and a lot of...
[00:18:35] Meilin Ehlke: suppression.
[00:18:36] Miriam Toukan:
Yes, and operation also. So, I choose the law and I was really enjoying studying the law. I studied in the University of HAFA. It was also a big journey to get, to be accepted in the University. I really looked and focused on it and wanted so badly. So, I could meet a lot of people through my studying.
And because I took a lot of courses that are managing with the issues of human rights and women rights and children rights. And worked with big sector of Drews women, Jewish women, religious, non-religious. And I could, made a step further to be closer to the needs and to the voices of the women around me and this gave me a lot of knowledge, ...
[00:19:32] Meilin Ehlke:
Strengths that I always sense, it gave you this upright column of this surety, yeah.
[00:19:38] Miriam Toukan:
... and the knowledge and something was like opened. More and more and more into my eyes and my heart and gave me a lot of not only inspiration, but it's, it's kind of a push to make also to raise the voice more and more. And of course in this time I was making my one of my important [00:20:00] station in my life when I decided to take part in the Israeli prime time show. So, and I was the, the first and only Arab to take part in a prime time and to sing.
[00:20:12] Meilin Ehlke: Super.
[00:20:13] Miriam Toukan:
And this all goes together. And since this station I, became known after I was anonymous and I could make things, but in a very, very little space. And in one moment I could use these tools for more and more and more opportunities and for more people.
And it was the time where I was finishing almost my degree as a lawyer. And after that, I worked off course in the field as a lawyer for a few years I could see how it was needed. For me also and I took now a different way, being a lawyer to work more in the field and not in the office to be more outdoors with projects, with the associations like more involved in the reality and less in the formal and the documents and the office. And, so I am more content because, I knew and learned the importance being in the office, I'm dealing with documents, but I found myself more now with the working outdoors.
[00:21:27] Meilin Ehlke:
Yeah. It's, I always get that, feel this envelopment, that your, you know, your love of your passion, whatever name you want to give it. But you, as the being, I see you like always going, putting blankets around people and, inviting them to come close to you. And so you also go out to them. So they experience you, right? Because they don't need to find you, you just show up and you're there for them.
[00:21:56] Miriam Toukan:
It's a ping pong. Like I am getting these voices and this love, a lot of love Meilin. It's, I cannot even explain it in any meeting with people, with women, with children. I feel that I take this huge energy, positive energy, huge love. So I can raise their voices. I can spread it back to places that they couldn't make it themselves, but I could have the opportunity to be on stage, to be an, in an interview, to be in a conference to speak out this love that I take and this need and this even, longing for living for life, for normal life.
Like the, the basic, the basic issue that we need in the life. So if I didn't, I don't get this from them. I cannot give it. I cannot bring it out. I maybe can all the time speak about my own story, but it's not enough. Considering myself and my colleagues also that work for peace. The huge things that Yael is making, that all my friends that working for the peace in any kind of art or in any kind of path, we need this energy. We need this love. We are tools. We are, we consider ourselves as tools.
[00:23:20] Meilin Ehlke: This interaction. Yeah.
[00:23:22] Miriam Toukan:
So, it's necessary to have this ping pong all the time. To have these meetings, to have this, even sitting with 10 women in a circle, in unknown place without sharing any information about it. It helps. And it gives me a lot of strengths and a lot of, let's say a lot of inspiration seeing the past and where are we going on? Even with a little, a little meeting, a little meeting with one woman with one woman that can give me the world, the whole world. So this, this is the way that I believe. And this meetings are so important to me and traveling, hearing, and listening to the people. I am thankful for having this opportunity. And I don't take it for granted. This is a blessing, I consider it a blessing and a responsibility that we have all the time to look, to make it in the best way that we can. And not to put our issue and personal issue to stop this mission.
[00:24:28] Meilin Ehlke:
Mm. Yeah, this sense. You are, you're such a beacon of love and you are this exchange of wisdom. Right? I speak sometimes about it, to practice, when we are maybe a little afraid to voice or get too close to others, to then sit, or lean against a tree and feel the energy that comes from a tree moves into us, but also to recognize that the tree is curious enough to, pull in and experience the energy of us, a human being. And this is, I would love to share also with the world, we are no lesser than anything existing. And we have this exchange of wisdom it is what creates fun. It provides strengths.
[00:25:14] Miriam Toukan: Yes.
[00:25:14] Meilin Ehlke:
It gives curiosity, it provides inspiration, motivation. While you were speaking the thought came, you are like a little bit of an igniter. So, you listen with a deep, deep heart with a deep presence. You have an extreme presence. I mean, your presence is your grand grand woman. Right? But what is so interesting, even though you have these immense presence. You're so soft. So, you're so soft and inviting that people, or other women, even one or in a small group, or if you have thousands around you on a big March or concert. They feel drawn to you and they wanna share with you. You invite them. You have something about them that lets all boundaries fall. It's like they dissolve, they disappear. This is rare, that you can find that.
[00:26:16] Miriam Toukan:
Thank you. Thank you for sharing this, making me believing more and more in the way that we are going on. This invitation for the women I think mainly, that it's also something about necessity for me to understand and to feel I am existing.
I am making something I am for me, the things that makes me content and makes me feel. Happy is when I am making things. When I am creating, when I am taking this mission to being a tool and to have the possibility and to give the permission to the people to use it.
[00:27:00] Meilin Ehlke: Yeah.
[00:27:00] Miriam Toukan:
To use it. And this is important for me. So, this invitation, I think, it's also when I feel the people's and the women's invitation and they invite me to be with them, to talk to them, to sing to them. And all the time I was asking myself, this moment when we are singing and we feel the sky is opening and the, the hearts are open, are opened. It's a magical moment that I believe we can have miracles in this moment. And this is my belief to make the change.
[00:27:41] Meilin Ehlke: Mm.
[00:27:42] Miriam Toukan:
And this is what we are all focusing on. We need, we want to make changes. We want things to change. We want dark and close hearts to be up and, and eyes to see and ears to hear and to listen. So, it's kind of a net, it's kinda a net and we are all needed. And we are just moving, with our heart, with our voices. We are moving this net and every woman and every person is making this in his own way and his own tools also. So, we are inviting each other actually. And if I had this blessed to have something that make the people, easily listening or moving or so for this, I should use it more. For this I should have it for more and more and more people because it's not mine. We are sharing and everyone has his own, I dunno how to call it in English. It's like everyone has his own package, his own and you should work and make depends on the size of this package.
You have the little, so your little is perfect. You are making the little, but it's perfect. If I have this huge package, so I need to make more efforts. I need to make more things and I should arrive to the perfect that, this little package also for other people to be in the same balance. So, the voice and the heart make the package a bit bigger. And this is also goes equally with your duties that you should make and your responsibility and your extra work and extra effort. Mm-hmm so.
[00:28:41]Meilin Ehlke:
Yeah, you are so right. The last year I've been very quiet in being internal fine tuning, what for me to bring out. To bring my big package now out into the world, I've done the small packages. Like it's, you know, but I also know why am I here on this earth? There's a reason. And why are we here now? And all of us. Have something. And as you said so beautifully that it's no judgment on size, they're optimal for us. They have maybe different weight, they, or whatever, right? There is a reason what gift you bring, what passion, what purpose you have.
And they're often very simple, like a beauty or freedom or harmony. It is not an, an extensive, so there is you can't even give it a value it's precious each single one we provide. But I also love what you were speaking about in your cultures. You have more of these groups. I have just speaking yesterday on a podcast with an English man.
How we up here in Germany or English cultures, we miss that we've been so torn apart already 2000 years ago and isolated that as women we don't have. This community at this moment, maybe there were reasons if you're lucky and you live in a small village, right. You have a knitting. And they have especially when I moved here.
Yeah. They have their certain traditional costumes, lot of traditions, what they do here in this regions. But I grew up more anonymous. There were not other women for us to be. I had to learn through others. I have a friend she is of the Zazas, right. She comes from Eastern-Southern Turkey. From Lebanon I had to get to meet some Persian to start to feel what sisterhood means.
[00:31:30] Miriam Toukan: Of course.
[00:31:31] Meilin Ehlke:
What is means coming to a circle. I also miss as a woman a little bit, how we are spoken as when we turn from a child into women. So there are many things where circles have for us, I'm gonna even say it by religion or other oppressors, been taken apart. So we lose that strength that comes with community. About eight years ago, when I started my radio show, community building was always a topic and we can see that now around the world.
And you've been a beautiful example since you're a young woman, teenager. Right? How we can bring together again community of women from around the world. Because even there, we weren't so separated. If we look, go further back a few thousand years, or even before the Romans, 5, 8, 10. People from around the globe were living in different places.
We were traveling everywhere. Right? And we can prove it. Now we can throw history around. We were so much mixed and in communication and seeing each other for what we are. And that's what you bring out again, also in your music. So, share a little bit, you just came out with a brand new song beginning of March. Right?
It's called 'Trust your voice',
[00:32:57] Miriam Toukan: Yes..
[00:32:57] Meilin Ehlke:
Where you bring together in your musical tones, all that you have spoken. So, your tones you sing and the intent and intention that comes out of your body when you sing, brings and supports people, women, men, children, and elderly. It doesn't matter where you live and come from to a trust that the words they speak are the right ones.
[00:33:30] Miriam Toukan:
Yeah. In this past year, I experienced really the importance of the world trust as a key for the peace in my country. If I don't trust the other side and the other side doesn't trust me we will never have the possibility to have peace. So, in my, in many songs, in many things that I was singing about peace about love and using these words and the hope and, and this year, the word trust was following me in many, in many situations, in many places.
And even without thinking about the song, I bought a t-shirt with that is and made from the design of the singer Mirah Howard with the word trust in three languages in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. And it catch me. So, so, so in a strong way, and when I got the lyrics from my, friend Mika, and I read the poem, trust your voice from the first sentence I knew this is the upcoming song that I want to sing and to speak.
I wrote the melody and I added a part in Arabic. It's an extra part of the song where I am talking to the man. Hmm. Because in English, when you say trust your voice, it's for everybody in my language and in Arabic and Hebrew, there is another word. When I say," ................. is raised and trust your voice, it's for the woman.
I am talking, speaking to woman Ali........., It's for the man. So in Arabic I sing it for the women, and then I added a part in also in Arabic speaking to the man, and sending a very clear message to the men. The message that I really wanted to say for many, many years, that is coming from the stories, that I collected in through my life, real stories.
And then I was in Spain and I thought about the video. I imagined women from all over the world, women from all sectors, children, to look into their eyes and to look into the eyes of each other and to say, trust your voice. And I could imagine, when we spread this, message. When you trust your interior voice, it's the real voice.
It's the strong, and even the voice through all your life and years, and this voice passed a lot. Passed sadness, happiness, feeling lost, feeling afraid, feel, but when you trust it, you speak it out. And when you speak it out, it arrives to the places where it should arrive. And if you keep it inside, it'll not arrive and the change will not happen.
So, it was for me like the seed of the plant that I want to see to trust our voices. And then I asked friends, I consider them my team women from Nablus, from Palestine women, from Israel. And they appeared in the video, in their natural way, natural how they're living the daily life. I could see the feeling when I was singing really when we were shooting the video, I was speaking out my voice singing even there is the, the music in the background, but I could feel had how it influences and make a big, influence in the women, in their interior feelings. So, I am happy with the song.
I am content, and of course, it's a style that is not commercial. It's a specific music style where we have the world and women spirit and women gathering. And so I am learning to be patient for this material or these songs to arrive more and more to women, to children, to people who need it and who need to hear it for their, they have the encourage and the motivation to trust their voices.
So this is my hope I will make my best and I will make all my effort to reach. If this song is finding obstacles to reach these people, I will make it like the past few years to make it live in every stage I am arriving. And in every place I am arriving to make this music reachable and possible for everyone.
[00:38:36] Meilin Ehlke:
This is beautiful and not censoring our voice. So I experience that myself. I'm spiritual. So I had to trust what I say touches someone. I don't translate. Some people, you know, they see pictures or they have a voice and give messages on. I had to trust that, whatever I say. It took decades. Yeah, but it got me to there that I do not censor anymore what I want to say, because I don't know what impact and what experience another person just had that it's in front of me and even not censor what the reaction may be. Yeah. And to stay open as long as it anyway from me it always comes with love and purity, whatever I say.
So, then another point I would like to share a short story because you're now in Andalusia, I was brought twice by the wind to Andalusia. And you are there now and your video was shot in Córdoba, if I'm correct. I've seen that. And there's a beautiful experience again, trusting your own self, yourself. So, we were a little further down that we had traveled a few days, then down to Tarifa.
[00:39:48] Miriam Toukan: Mm-hmm
[00:39:48] Meilin Ehlke:
We were there in a restaurant and suddenly I got cold. So I got up to go to the parking lot. There was no one in the parking lot. I put on my sweater and suddenly came the urge for me to sing.
[00:40:02] Miriam Toukan: Wow.
[00:40:02] Meilin Ehlke:
What the heck? I was standing there in the middle of the parking lot of sand. There was no one else in the parking lot. It was soil and it was close to the, I could see the ocean. I could see Africa from that point. I sang. That song touched me so deep changed me so deep. I was so surprised what came out. And I think that also is what I'm speaking now about is what influences your way of being now and singing now. This voice was a woman's voice of ancient wisdom, who has lived there long, long, long before as a society.
I could feel that while she was singing, it was a little of a sadness, but also that there's a reawakening of a remembering. And I could sense that it was still the time this woman lived. When there was, we were able to walk over the Straight of Gibraltar right over the water. There was no water at that time because it's not very deep.
You could then walk over to Africa. And there was, again, also much more of movement around on our globe. And, people moved from the North, to the South into Africa in all directions. So, and I could feel that, but there was also this... I still sense that's now, I don't know, seven years ago that this song came, it still vibrates within me.
And I think once on a radio show, it came out and she sung once more. But there is this support we all have as human being, especially now also women. There are so many unseen beings here now connected to us, supporting us also enveloping and giving us. And especially you you're tapping into this ancientness into this beauty of that land.
When I was there, I felt it. Since I was a landscape architect, I had to go to see in Granada the Alahambra gardens. The lion court and the Jardines del Generalife garden. I had to experience these. I had to be there. I sensed. There's a whole complex of additions of the architecture, but these two places were so ancient. Where the ancient wisdom and the water and the four winds were brought into the rooms of the palace. They were way beyond with their architecture. We started all fighting each other and taking over others lands.
And I sense those wisdom pockets that are bubbles and they're popping up everywhere in Southern Spain. So, I think there is a fascinating, reason why you are there right now. Yeah. You said, you told me you're now the last four years in Córdoba and you spent most of your time there during this time. You were drawn there. What is it? Do you sense in the landscape, in the energy of where you live now? That influences a little bit of what you are bringing out, or crafting. Because you're still, also, it feels to us, you are recrafting, you're trying new materials. As if I would use different earths to paint or what is it for you?
[00:43:13] Miriam Toukan:
I will tell you something, that happened before I reached the first time to Córdoba. I visited Spain, maybe seven year s or eight years ago. And I had this passion, to see Córdoba as the capital of the three culture and the three religions. Mm-hmm and to see another place, which is not in this region, in the middle east that had this three religions and culture and to experience it. I couldn't have the opportunity to visit Córdoba then.
And when I was invited with Yael in 2017 to come to Córdoba already, I felt something that is fulfilling my heart. And when I reached, when I entered the city and I saw the women come to hug and to welcome us with tears, with longing, like they were waiting for us for many years. This was the feeling in such a magical place, like in the legends. In this moment I remembered a dream. A real dream, that was in my mind so much, so many years before I reached Córdoba. I dreamed that I am running in the little streets of Baghdad of Iraq and I've never visited Iraq. I've never seen any place in Iraq or in imagine. But in the dream, I thought I am running in the villages and the cities.
One of the cities of Iraq in Baghdad when I reached Córdoba the same place I saw, and I thought this was Baghdad. It was Córdoba the same, the same ways the same. Then I imagined, I remembered the dream and I said, oh, oh, okay. This was not Baghdad. This was Córdoba. And I remember the second day one woman told me that, "do you know that in the past, there was a big relationship in very important relationship between Baghdad and Córdoba as cities of the cultures and education out of the wisdom...
[00:45:27] Meilin Ehlke: Mm-hmm
[00:45:29] Miriam Toukan: ...and things started to connect me more and more to everything in this city. I experienced really spiritual experience even before we went to march with the women and to sing, not only me. Me and Yael and our friends, we felt such a connection, such a big power and inspiration and magic in this place, in this ancient place. We could feel the history that this place passed of conflict, of war, of culture, of even prosperity because this place, in the a few hundred years ago was a huge gathering of music and art and Jewish and Christian and Muslim people were living in this city together and managing together in peace and not only creating art and music and science.
So I felt home. This is the briefly when I arrived to Córdoba and saw this energy of this place, this ancient place, and the love of the women, of the women that are living now and holding all the packages and the history of this place. So we could feel it directly. Like in the first step that we put our feet in this place.
And it's an inspiring place. It's I think, this four years I am between Israel, Palestine, and Córdoba. I have this feeling of the, not the balance, but it's like three pieces that make a beautiful, beautiful new place, beautiful place. But a lot of in common, a lot. And this means, I think this means that we are one world, one family, and it's, and every zone has its own energy it's on history, but in the end, we are the people of this land. We are the women of this world and we can unite easily. I think, if we just trust the voice, our voice.
[00:47:51] Meilin Ehlke:
Oh, I love that. I love that. It is. If we trust our voice, we see also we have the ability to change.
[00:48:00] Miriam Toukan: Yes.
[00:48:01] Meilin Ehlke:
Not even meaning just oneself self, but we have impact. So, we've been so taught, we have no influence on anyone or anything, and that is dissolving. And you are also dissolving that with your music and you just, what you shared so beautifully. There something fell off, my mic.. All right I have another one. These wild movements. Goes over here. I hope it works. That's live, that's how it works in podcasting video.
Yeah, that we have the ability of change and we just need to go into action. And the first action is to take a breath to say, I can do it and to bring out that one, letter, that one word, this one sentence, this one story, and to be open to embrace myself, right?
[00:48:52] Miriam Toukan: Yes.
[00:48:52] Meilin Ehlke:
To embrace you and to embrace everyone. And become curious of what wants to come [00:49:00] out of one's self, what wants to come out of you and what wants to come out of others. And to have, as you so beautifully said, the calmness within to listen deeply, to be present for someone else, to see them as they are, and not to provide judgment. Which is tightening, but to see a person so they can open up even further. Or providing that safe space to say, "try I'm here. Just whatever you wanna speak out, try it on me."
That we are here as women for each other, again, more and more. So the other one can open up. When the other one opens up, I can open up. When I open up again a little bit further, she can, and then everyone else around us changes as well, our children and our men. And so everyone it's up to you to trust your voice. And so listen to Miriam's music. Miriam where can people find you or connect with you to invite you for your next concert or your next marches or find your song?
[00:50:19] Miriam Toukan:
So, I have a YouTube channel, on my name Miriam Toukan where it is my music and in the music stores like Spotify and Deezer. A lot of music under Miriam Toukan and on my Facebook, I have also a website, also on my name, Miriam Toukan dot com. And I am trying to write also, not only to put the, the songs, but I am contacting with my people, with my friends, with my friends and I am writing blogs and sharing, what is [00:51:00] going on in my life, in my personal life, in my concerts, in my meetings with the women and in the event that we all experience and we all living in this world.
So, I would love to contact with more and more and more people. And I hope, the music reaches you and to every, every everybody in this world. And I hope this music gives fulfill needs everyone as he needs. I hope this moves hearts. I hope this makes people to think, to relax, to breathe, to believe in theirselves, and to be part of our circle, to be part of our mission and to make more and more and more steps further for the peace and for the love and to see more and more beauty.
In all the ruins we have around in all the darkness in all, to see the beauty, to see the light, to try to see the light inside us and to try to move on and not to give up. When we are together we are stronger. When we are United, when we are, you are not alone, this is what I am saying.
Also in the song 'Trust your voice' because also you are not alone. This is very important. When I feel the loneliness, it's sometimes it's really the beginning of the fears and the beginning to feel the to be lost. But when you are surrounded with the love, when you are feeling that you are not alone, the voice is stronger so we are together.
[00:52:39] Meilin Ehlke:
It is so true. We are together. We're together. Everyone I've experienced in my life to every time I thought I was alone. Fear creeps in the moment you sense? You're not alone. You're connected to all existing. People sense you. Other beings sense you. They're there for you. And then you, you are encouraged to be you.
[00:53:01] Miriam Toukan:
Sometimes we don't know where the voice, where are the things to whom it's reaching, where it goes. From my own experience, only a few days ago, a person sent to me, "you don't know the healing and the support that I got from your music in my dark, darkest days." And I don't know this person. I never thought it might arrive to this country like Indonesia. I wouldn't imagine. I didn't know this. And the people, are even arriving to the point, that they can share this with you and tell you how it was important to do this and that. So, even you, even me, we don't know where these things reach and then we should it continue and we should believe and trust our mission.
When you believe in it, it reaches to places, that you also, don't never dreamed about, so not in my mission, only in every women, in every person mission. I would say, that even though you are lost or you don't know if your things that you are making is reaching people, don't give up and don't stop because there is someone in the other side of this planet is hearing maybe one word or one sentence and it changes his life. So let's go on.
[00:54:34] Meilin Ehlke:
Yes. Let's go on everyone. Take these words in. Soak in that love in, the voice, the even power that Miriam brings you through her voice, that starts igniting more about you and, and loosening up, dissolving what holds you back and to bring out your voice and so much more your beautiful being and what you highlight.
So, wow. This was a fantastic time together with you, Miriam. Thank you. For doing what you are doing. For being who you are. For being so connected to acting on your own impulse, to not give up, to not censor yourself. The list goes on for the love you have for everyone and everything on this planet and how you are now even bringing out togetherness, a community.
You are also strong now building more and more of communities and teaching women how to be there together and for each other. So for that, I think you deeply, because as these ripples go around the globe, the wind picks it up as this song, this ancient woman in Andalucia, it goes around and over and over.
And, I hope it also comes back plentiful, plentiful, plentiful to you in your creativity support, that you can travel the world all over, all the way to Indonesia as well. Because now, you know, the essence that you bring is independent of culture. It is just here for us human beings. So, thank you, for being on the Moving To Oneness podcast.
[00:56:25] Miriam Toukan: Thank you.
[00:56:26] Meilin Ehlke:
And the best to you. Everyone also, listen, listen, listen, be present, reach out to Miriam. She's so approachable. Connect with her and share a little bit of your story with her, because as creatives, that's what inspires us to move forward to do more when, a voice, comes back to us. So again, I'm Meilin your host of the Moving To Oneness podcast.
I wish you the best until next time. Goodbye.