All Is Change

by Anni Zylstra

Anni Zylstra (they/them) is a multidisciplinary folk artist based in the traditional homelands of the Oceti Sakowin and Ho-chunk in SW so-called Wisconsin.   Some of the realms their work encompasses include traditional willow basketry, agroforestry, polyphonic singing, arts organizing, directing, and  teaching.  All of Anni's work is rooted in both deep reverence for the nonhuman world, as well as visions of radical inclusion and reimagining who is welcome in the the rural folkscape.

All is Change, (formerly known as Blessed Motion), is a 4-part acknowledgement of Life as an unpredictable, ever-changing movement toward itself. The melody first came crouching in a rock bed next to a fast moving fork of the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California, and inspired from words about Martin Prechtel's experience surviving a devastating earthquake in Guatemala in the 1970's.
Years after writing this song, upon reading the works of Octavia Butler and other visionary Black futurists and science fiction authors, Anni dedicates this song to their work, which they believe is the real visionary and earth-healing work of these times. - Anni

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LYRICS:

Part 1:
I believed in solid ground
until I saw the earth in motion,

In the winds of steady change
and in the ever-rolling ocean.

Part 2:
All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

Solo:
All is moving, all is change, 
Though I once believed that there might somehow be 
Something firm beneath my feet, but

All is motion, and all is well 
For solid ground is just a myth 
For those who never swim in it.

All is moving in blessed change, 
Oh the world we know will come and go 
And everything will rearrange, so

Be the ground beneath that sky,
Tumbling round the by and by.
All is change, so am I.
Li li li, li li li

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