Thursday, July 10, 2008

Answer to the Question

Q: How do I create a life that best expresses who I am?

A: By bringing the things I love closer to the center of my life.

Glad to finally report that I've taken some action in this endeavor:

I'm taking singing lessons! WOO-HOO!

It's amazing. Fabulous. Best money I've ever spent. My teacher ROCKS. (www.elizabethrayvoice.com.) And she's right in Lafayette, which is highly convenient.

Had Lesson #3 today; worked on "Superstar" by The Carpenters.

"Don't you remember you told me you loved me baby?
You said you'd be coming back this way again, baby.
Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh, baby.
I love you, I really do."


I sang this song with my friend Kathy, so it holds a special place in my heart.
[Cue trip down Memory Lane]
The Artist's Way Creativity Camp in Taos, New Mexico, 2000: We're walking in the hills, practicing. Open Mic is a few hours away. Kathy points out that I'm repeating the melody from the first verse on the second verse, and sings the correct notes to jog my memory. That's when she finds out I haven't ever actually heard the whole song all the way through. I knew pieces of it from commercials for Carpenter records, K-Tel compilations, and the only funny scene in the movie "Tommy Boy" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJYDg9XThc). Caused her a few heart palpitations at the time, I think, but we did all right.

Bringing music into my life through singing--not dating musicians and living vicariously through them--it's a blessing. I feel whole.

What could be better than that?

I don't know. But I'm happy to find out.