How Can I Keep From Singing?

“No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to this rock I’m clinging

Since love is Lord of Heaven and Earth

How can I keep from singing?”

As long as I can remember, singing has been a part of my life. There isn't one childhood memory that doesn't contain some facet of me singing. Whether at home alone in my bedroom humming some song or my mom accompanying me on piano for an audition for a show. Inevitably, singing was a part of my being. 

On my journey of singing, it has lead me to places I never expected. From the Midwest, to Italy, to NYC, to teaching, and to the feet of a meditation master. From great highs to great loss, singing has always been that friend I could count on until even that was taken from me for a time. It has revealed the strongest parts of my being as well as shown me the facets of myself that kept me from truly seeing the greatest parts of my Self. It has been my greatest teacher.

I have never considered myself a writer creatively by any means. Yet here I am, expressing parts of myself I didn't think I would ever share in a public forum. I am a pretty introverted person, keeping my friend group on the smaller side of things. Yet, I went thru some difficult times in over one short year(which seemed like an eternity at time), that compelled me to share my journey in life thru singing with the hopes of inspiring others no matter what walk of life they came from or whatever profession they do. 

For me, singing has always been something I felt was so much a part of my nature. It wasn't something I had to do, it was something I NEEDED. As we need food and water to maintain and sustain life, singing for me was food. It was a necessity I couldn't live without. Yet, as my accolades grew as I got older, so did my ego. I started to think it was all about me, and it was just that thinking that lead me to a meditation group over 22 years ago. I still remember walking in and someone asking me why I was there. I replied, "Oh, I think it will make me a better singer." By this time I had been struggling a little technically and had been curious about meditation. Yet, this night proved to be something much more than I expected and started me on a journey I never even thought was possible.

Many times I have asked myself these questions, "Why do I sing?"  Do I sing because it gives me a way to give back to others? Do I sing because I want to hear from others how great I am? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself these questions? To my students I often pose these questions to them after they have been with me for a little while. Some look at me as if I asked them to prove some mathematical theorem, to others a spark is lit and a new exploration unfolds. Those students seem to be able to get what I have to give.

As I start on this new journey, these posts will talk about my own personal discoveries in my life that have been revealed by singing as well as deep lessons thru my experiences of teaching. Not only lessons and realizations for me, but my students as well. I firmly believe that there is always something to learn. No one knows everything there is to know about a subject.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing-Socrates

In our darkest times things reveal themselves, if we are open, that can propel and change us in ways we never imagined. The evolution of the spirit is endless, and that same spirit is unbreakable. Sometimes to find that which is constant, the walls of unnecessary things have to be taken down. And once that happens, a whole new life can begin.