“My rite of passage into the world of humanity occurred then, through jazz. The music was a startling bridge between familiar and strange lands. I heard stomp-dance shells, singing. I saw suits, satin, fine hats. I heard works singing in the fields. It was a way to speak beyond the confines of ordinary language.”

Harjo opens the memoir with her first epiphany about the strange power of music. She notes her realization that music can be used to communicate more profoundly and evocatively than language. The notes she hears of stomp-dance shells and singing reflect her ancestral traditions, and the suits and fine hats evoke her love for her father. Harjo frequently elaborates on such pivotal moments by connecting them to her personal life or to her ancestry.

“Because music is a language that lives in the spiritual realms, we can hear it, we can notate it and create it, but we cannot hold it in our hands. Music can help raise a people up or call them to gather for war. The song my mother-to-be was singing will make my father love her, forever, but it will not keep him out of the arms of other women. I will find my way to earth by her voice.”

Harjo notes that music is a language from the spiritual realm. She also positions herself in the spiritual realm before her own birth and suggests that the music of her mother’s voice drew her to earth to be born. Harjo often evokes both the power of ancestral belief and personal emotion to draw the reader into her philosophical thoughts.

“Though I was reluctant to be born, I was attracted by the music. I had plans. I was entrusted with carrying voices, songs, and stories to grow and release into the world, to be of assistance and inspiration. These were my responsibility. I am not special. It is this way for everyone.”

Harjo establishes her purpose and life mission in this passage. She emphasizes its fundamentality and importance by claiming to have felt it even before birth. Knowing that such statements ring narcissistic, she notes that we all have our own purpose and story and that she is simply recounting hers.