Friday, December 27, 2013

No. 277: All That Time.



Think of all the time it took
to de-construct your Voice:

When you were born It and You
were One.

And then, someThings,
someOnes,
some Instances,
some Traumas,
some De-ravelings and
De-structions happened
to cause you
not
to Trust It.

But now, You are grown up
and CAN see It 
for what It 
IS:


YOUR BEAUTY
YOUR LOVE
YOUR LIFE
YOUR EXPERIENCE.


Own It.  Heal It.
Do the Work that Feels Like Be-coming ALIVE

(oh, and don't be surprised if IT has It's own timeline--YOU were the one who banished It after all...yes, even if unconsciously. --for this you may grieve, and that, in ItSelf IS Voice.)


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

No. 276: Re-birth...again and again and again.



Learning to sing is a re-birth.
Only the child we re-birth, this Entity of Voice
Never leaves us
(indeed Its separation from us is only ever an illusion)
This seemingly symbiotic
yet mirror-image-melding 
between Us: the Creators and Realizers of Voice
and Voice: ItSelf
Is potentially 
The Greatest Relationship We Could Ever Have
And perhaps
if we are Seekers of Voice
The One We Need Most to Understand
Who We Are.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically. 


Thursday, December 5, 2013

No. 272: Could You?



Could you be kind and loving enough
gentle and simple enough
to allow Voice 
to come 
to You?

Our culture 
has created 
traumatized and terribly frightened
Expressions of Voice
that live 
right beside Us

Starving for freedom
for nourishment
and acknowledgement.

Learn to invite Voice 
back HOME:
Learn to realize Your Oneness with It

And watch an incredible Adventure unfold.

THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

No. 271: Stealth Singers



What if the world houses
Stealth Singers
Sometimes Secret Warriors of HeArt
Who live 
To Sing
At times when others
Seem Voice-less?
Who Sing
At times often least expected 
To bring awareness of Voice
Which sings US?

What IF...?

THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

No. 265: Oh, and by the way



The idea that "some of US" have "IT"
and "others of US"
don't 

is 

a hoax.
a scam.
a lie.

hogwash.
malarkey.
nonsense.

or as my Grandpa would have said
with a twinkle in his eye:

"It's HOOEY."

Let this speak to your Soul
Let It clean you out like a septic system
finally plunged from years of waste

and You'll find
Your
Voice.

Oh yes,

You'll find IT.

And in all that HOOEY
a garden will grow
that
magically
has always been there
in some
other
reality
that's now
(y)OURS.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.

No. 264: You Spot It? You Got It.



If we want

to CHANGE LIFE ON EARTH

Opera Organically offers 
one
simple
reality:

If We can spot It, We've got It.


That's it.


We see the "It" in another
and know, deep down,
in the center of US,
that what makes up One
must make up All.

Apply this to singing 
and suddenly we know

If we can HEAR Voice
We can BE Voice.

We've just got to ask IT 
how
to let 
that happen.

It's that simple.

That pure.


That Loving, That Living--THAT Opera Organically.



Saturday, September 21, 2013

No. 263: Always use a sharp knife.





We singers are best served 
by a technique
by a community
by a way of thinking
feeling
and being

that cuts straight and clean

to the HeArt of the Matter
of LIFE.

It's Our Fantastic Privilege

to choose between that 
which IS
WHO WE ARE

and that
which is not.

Opera Organically is All About the Truth:
and YOU are the One Who
gets to decide how deep the cuts go
Into the Place
the Space
the Way

Where the pain of the cutting shifts
almost imperceptibly
into BLISS.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.






Friday, September 20, 2013

No. 262: On Safety Nets and Things





Sometimes my body releases a little shudder
when I remember all the times I've fallen off a horse.

THUD.

I can still taste the salty dirt,
remember the shock,
the automatic tears I choked back.

For a long time, I bragged and counted my falls.
This earned me my famous nickname in school:

Bucky Farmhorse.

I secretly loved it.

Yet with the wisdom of time and years,
and with the understanding of the value of true safety--
created by Self and by Other in Community,
I become more and more passionate
about living and teaching an alternative
to the "brush yourself off and get back on the horse" paradigm.

One of the things I most love about Natural Horsemanship
is it teaches us hu/wo/mans to read the language of Horse
in order--probably 99.9% of the time--to keep ourselves 
and our horses 
safe.

From the Heart School
is all about teaching this heart connection
through mutual language
so all involved
whether singer
or rider
are mutually cared for.


*Come close and I will whisper a deep Truth*


HORSE CAN CARE FOR YOU!

VOICE CAN CARE FOR YOU!


We just have to learn how to let this happen.

It IS as mysterious as It seems,
and yet also 
incredibly
simple.


Our culture teaches us to leap without the safety net of Heart Connection:

"Sign up for American Idol before you know the language of Voice! Why not just give it a try??"

"Go out in the back yard and just saddle up that horse?  It's just a horse!!"


Our most sure and steady Safety Net is the knowledge of connection or the lack thereof 
between us and the One with whom we wish to fly:

It is extreme Bliss to be at One with Voice, to be at One with Horse.

But Bliss requires an investment of wisdom--whether intuitive or learned.

Most of us have to learn it.

Hopefully we do so before we've decided
We've had one too many falls
Or one too many shame-filled performances
to get back on the horse
or back
on the stage.

At any rate, even if we have come close or gone past
This "point of no return"
Where we've experienced the loss of our dreams to sing or ride
with the abandon of an Open Heart,
we can know there is a Way Back:
through the deep Love and Honoring
of Heart in the Safety of Natural Knowledge
which

*pssst--another secret*

WE ACTUALLY HAD WHEN WE WERE BORN.

*Heart Beat*

*Heart Beat*



THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.








Friday, September 13, 2013

No. 261: From the Heart School



Dear Friends of Opera Organically,

Those of us who put HeArt first 
start to see It everywhere:
in everything.

I see absolutely every reason
to bring this awareness 
to teaching all sorts of Arts.

There is now a Place dedicated
to HeArt Learning:

From the HeArt School!


Here is a video (8.5 mins) introducing the background of the Vision:




In Love, Light, and Music,

Becca


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

No. 260: Open-Heart Surgery




When We All Understand
to ask of ourselves
and of others
a "simple" song

Is often to ask 
the equivalent 
of Open-Heart Surgery

in public.
by the severely under-trained.
by the traumatized.
by the innocent.
by the ignorant.
by the precious, the infinitely valuable, the awesomely authentic...

When We All Finally Understand
the World is the operating table 
for our Collective Singing Heart

We will band together to co-create
a sterile, meticulously safe environment
for Heart and Voice to emerge,
to heal,
to grow,
to hemorrhage,
to flat-line,
to be shocked back to life

So we can hold HeArt in gentle hands
Bowing to the mystery of what it means
to be complete 
even
in pieces--

To be together, even as we are separate--

To sing, even as we are silent--

When We All Know the Deepest Way of Loving
Open-Heart Surgery 
is no big deal:

It's just what We Do.  It's just Who We Are.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.




Monday, September 2, 2013

No. 259: The Best Defense--or Re-introducing the Diva/o Warrior




Have you ever defended a voice?



Have you smiled and known differently when someone says "I can't sing?"

Have you listened to a young child sing "off key" and let the sound warm your heart 
instead of bring a cringe?

Have you known the voices in your head that tell you "be quiet" 
are--just maybe--not the ones to listen to?



When we do things like this, when we are, in the most open way concerning voices, 
we are creating a Revolution, a Paradigm Shift,
a Reality of Voice:

It is a place where Voice is something so large, so all-inclusive,
so beautiful and pure and true,
that It needs no offense.  It needs no defense.


THIS place is where magic happens.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.









Monday, August 26, 2013

No. 258: At It's Deepest




At It's Deepest
Singing is Screaming
in "Yes":

It's a second chance
at birth
where we get to embrace
rather than protest
the feelings of Life
on 
and in
Our skins.

It's shaped laughter;
It's molded sobs;
It's longing and desire, fullness and emptiness--
All
at
Once.

Perhaps this is why Singing
is so glorified.

Perhaps this is why so many want to do It.

Who would not want this transmutation into Love...?

And Who, in their right HeArt, 
would ever dream 
of denying It?


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.




This post is dedicated to my Friend Tammy McCammon.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

No. 257: Find the Infinity.



Find the Infinity
in (Y)our Heart
and you will find
the Infinity
in (Y)our Voice.

Bathe in the Love
Which is
Who We Are...

...and BE...just...Be...

THIS is life--this is singing--at it's best.

THIS is Opera Organically.







No. 257: If you knew...



If you knew 
that singing could do for you
what dreaming,
meditating,
loving,
hugging,
smiling,
laughing,
crying,
can do--

that is:

BRING YOU TO LIFE

Would you do It?

...and if someone told you you couldn't do it, but yet, you stand here before me, ALIVE, would you QUESTION what you have been told?

Ahhh...I DO HOPE the answers for you are "YES".

To sing is one of Life's great gifts--It Is, I believe, a basic human right, to sing.

Do not let a lie that has parasitically silenced us keep you from singing:
one of Life's greatest experiences, when done 
fully,
completely,
with ALL the Heart and Mind.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.



Wednesday, August 14, 2013

No. 256: You




"You are loved, and are Love."


*this is Voice calling*


How will You answer?


... ... ...



Live It.  Love It.  BE IT.  
THIS is Opera Organically.


Friday, August 9, 2013

No. 255: The Missing Curriculum



Today 
I admit to the world
I just 
GUFF-AWED
at the fact
that we attempt
to teach singers
most often
without the slightest mention
of Voice's inherent ability
to teach US.


What are we thinking...?


Voice, I am Yours. 
Use me.
Open me.
Beat my HeArt with the drum of Your Reality.

THIS is the Greatest Curriculum of All:
the Music we keep on living
and living
and
living.

*surprise!*


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.



Saturday, August 3, 2013

No. 254: DON'T SING.




DON'T SING.


*that's right, you heard it*


Voice's Self-Professed Advocate

Is telling YOU to keep quiet.


*Hmmmm...why...?*


Because so far:

1) The World has very little clue

How precious YOUR Voice IS.


2) The World has very few tools

To keep your Voice safe.


3) The World very rarely sees 

The exquisite, stunning BEAUTY

Of a Voice in birthing.


*Better to stay quiet until You know of an absolutely caring World 
Where Voice Is All There Is
So when people tell you there is a mark to miss
you can smile kindly and secretly
and keep following your path 
to bliss*


THIS New World is Life.  
THIS New World is Love.  
THIS New World is Opera Organically.





Tuesday, July 30, 2013

No. 253: Voice and B.S.




Voice is singular.

It's opposite is Voicelessness.  But because Voice is singular,
It can have no opposite.

In other words, It's opposite is B.S.

Only when we see B.S. in the Light of Voice
can we know It in the context of Voice's singularity:

B.S. becomes S.B.

The base slavery to which we can be subjected
through believing and valuing uninformed opinions
and incomplete experiences

becomes

Supreme Bliss.

Life as we thought we knew It
Stands on It's head.

From this upside-down
inside-out 
perspective 

We hear the Music of All We Are
constantly drumming:


It Is...It Is...It Is... .


Let Voice spook You gently with It's 
Rhythm of Life

out of the lull of B.S.


*goose-bumps and awe, wonder and amazement*


Swim in the It of All We Are: Do and Be in and of Supreme Bliss.


Heal the world.

Know Your Voice.

You may as well...

It already knows
You.



THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.














Monday, July 29, 2013

No. 252: No Conditions




True Voice, with a capital "V"
has no conditions.

It Is Who We Truly Are.

Let this blow your mind

and you know 

You're Singing through your heArt
You have Sung through your heArt
and You will Sing through your heArt

forever.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

No. 252: Today...




Today, do what makes your heArt sing, and your singing Voice will follow.  


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.




Wednesday, July 24, 2013

No. 251: Of COURSE we wouldn't sing




If we look at the world
--really look--
and see 
how most of us view our voices
of COURSE
we wouldn't sing.

Who in hell
would subject themselves
to an environment
of such silencing fear?

Who in hell
would want to live
in a place 
of vocal impossibility?

We think we don't want to live there--

and yet most of us do.


Our automatic answers to 

"Can you sing?" 

are 
"NO".

--a fine answer--
if your Heaven is built in silence
or in spoken or written word,
not sung--
by all means, build It 
like that.

BUT 
if your Heaven 
is SINGING
and YOU
are in the CENTER of It
--but you're not there yet--

ask,
rather,
THIS question:


Do you WANT to sing?


If the answer always comes back

"YES"

look around you
and KNOW
there is an alternative to the madness: a H(e)aven
where Voice is safe
where you can build YOUR Body Instrument
to a strength where everything is possible
--to where your dreams become your life--
and everyone around you--including YOU--
is SINGING.


It's about paradigm shift.  About building Heaven on Earth.  About potential and possibility, honest inquiry, and powerful, individual and collective TRUTH.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.







Thursday, July 18, 2013

No. 250: The Magic of Fear



"Fear is the opposite of our true nature." ~Byron Katie.   



If we are afraid to sing, this fear is pointing to the treasure trove of Who We Are.

Will you follow this radical Path?

Will you allow the pull of your Truth to show you Voice?

Will you...?

Will you...?


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.



Friday, July 12, 2013

No. 249: Let It IN.




The world's almost automatic admonition  
toward a singer who is Voiceless
or Shy
or Scared
or Unsure

is


"Just let it out!"


It works in the movies.

It works on American Idol.


But what we see in these popular stories is only the partial truth for most of us Seekers of Voice.  
Most of us need to experience something quite different in order to find Vocal Freedom.

Many would-be singers, 
in REAL LIFE,
must learn
to let Voice IN
before they can ever let It out.

This allowing Voice IN, 
facilitated by an organic, life- and Voice-affirming technique,
as well as a community of absolute positivity like Opera Organically,
creates the knowledge of a complete security,
a deep authenticity,

a Self-FULLness

that is tapped in to the power
of Universal Voice (the third tenet).

It's this little, itty-bitty, 
GINORMOUSLY IMPORTANT STEP
in the Inward Direction
which we're most often forgetting--
as we bang our heads and mangle our hearts
against a direction to "Let It out!"
when we often aren't even aware 
of what "It" is!


And so, we stand all too often
at the end of our lives 
thinking


"Gee, I wish I could have sung--I wish I could have had a voice"


When, all the while, Voice was embracing Us with such Love, Eagerness, Acceptance, and Peace,
ready to make the LEAP for us--
as we stood, unaware, never knowing how to let It into our lives to DO this FOR us.


It's a small shift, but an important one.


Do Voice a favor 
and insert this step
into every "success" story
you've ever heard about a singer.

Many do not tell about this step
because many do not know
just how vital It is...
or even 
that they've taken it.

Some breathe Voice naturally--
others must re-learn to live where It lives
or we can never take a truly life-giving breath.


So, my friends...


Let It IN.


and then...

Be aware

You ARE It.

And EveryOne Else IS It.

And then watch 
as something even more AWESOME happens:

All that pressure to do the impossible
disappears into ashes and smoke
as the clarity of Voice
opens your Singing HeArt
and you hear, stunned,
the most powerful,
still
small Voice
you've ever heard:




...........................THERE IS NO "LETTING IT OUT"!!!...............................




...there is only letting It IN...




and letting It amongst Us, and of Us, and between Us, and around Us.



Know the stillness of It.



Know the Joy.




Know what it is to Sing--without uttering a note--
and let THAT resonance live
through the Music that Sings YOU. Has sung You. And will sing You, forever.




THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

No. 248: The Great LEAP




Opera Organically is a space of awe, of love, and of fascination.


For all the 'struggles' I lived while searching for Voice,
I realize now there was a constant thread of appreciation for the process of discovery.

At times, I remember not being able to sense the It: this appreciation.  

At those times, the oscuro ('dark') of my Singer's Way was thick and heavy.

At other times, the chiaro ('light') called me into excruciating bliss, 
pulling me up and away from balance.

But whether or not I experienced fascination, awe, and appreciation 
in the depths of pain, or in the joy of pleasure 
I know, as I look back,
that IT was always with me.


NOW I know, it is not the dark or the light that is the treasure.
The treasure is how I've learned to love both oscuro and chiaro identically,
as they have, and as the do, paint my Human Voice Experience.
The treasure is being able to see that, just by walking the Path of Singing,
I was loving Voice--even if unaware.


The good news of Opera Organically, according to the First Tenet, is


VOICE IS ALWAYS PRESENT.


The sometimes tricky news is that much of the world does not know this--or maybe they do, somewhere deep inside, in that place where heaven lives--but they do not speak it.  Much of the world speaks about how Voice must be earned, must be ethereal, must be elusive--must be reserved for the 'lucky' or the 'talented'.  This language keeps many of us from taking the Great LEAP Opera Organically has to offer:

Love 
Eagerness
Appreciation
Peace

at all times.

It is my Life Purpose to continue creating an Absolutely Supportive and Safe Space for Exploring Voice, with this Great LEAP as the foundation for my work. 

It is my mission, even when Voice is trapped in the weak definitions our world sometimes has to offer, to hold the strength of AWE and FASCINATION and LOVE for the discovery process in each and every singer's experience.
Even, and especially, when Great Breakings Open occur: when Voice bursts forth as a giant guffaw or a horrendous SPLAT, or crack, or Wonkiness--or tears, or anger--or when Voice goes inside to shelter Itself from the relentless judgment of common language--

It is my mission through Opera Organically and knowledge of the First Tenet, to hold the infinite strength of LOVE for VOICE ALREADY PRESENT.

Can you see what a a beautiful treasure hunt we then have laid out before us?

Can you sense what a celebration every day can be in this context?

Can you hear It, feel It, BE IT??

*Breathe It In*

*Breath It Out*


YOU. ARE. IT.

THIS is the Great LEAP.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.






Friday, July 5, 2013

No. 247: Something Much Deeper



As singers we're told

"get the gig"; "be paid for what we do"; "be 'professional' singers"; "get that company spot"; "get that album contract"; "form that group"; "get accepted into ______"...


...which is all well and fine, but




*GUESS WHAT*



THESE ARE SECONDARY ACHIEVEMENTS.


What we're NOT often told 
is to 
"seek connection with the awesomeness of Voice"; "hear It, feel It, be It"; "become a walking talking expression of Voice"; "love your Voice because your Voice is Love"...


There are no t.v. shows about this (yet).  There is very little drama about the deeper truth of LOVING Voice which, when it comes before all other "achievements" makes the singer's life path ecstatic, exciting, and beautiful.  There is very little drama but A LOT of excavation--a lot of HARD WORK mentally, emotionally, spiritually.  There is very little drama about a singer flying with the joy of expressing her complete Voice.  There is only reverent JOY.



We CAN flow with the Love of what It Is to BE Voice--and trust that all else which should come to our experience
will flow naturally from our very BE-ing.


THIS is Something Much Deeper.


THIS Is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically!


Thursday, July 4, 2013

No. 246: On Physical Body Size and the Origins of Voice




Any singer who's accessed the complete power of True Voice
has probably heard something like this:

"Where does all that sound come from?"

As I personally walk the path of physical, mental, and spiritual health and wholeness
I am physically the "smallest" I have ever been.  
Yet, vocally, my singing voice has never been more voluminous, supple, strong, 
and connected to the authenticity of "me" than it is NOW.

Very well informed people who love and support me say:

"EAT MORE....You're fading away...What about your voice?...Don't you need more meat on your bones?...What...YOU?...an opera singer?  You're not BIG enough!"

Of course, being the educator and passionate lover of life and singing that I am,
I have taken the bait and deeply probed into this very important question:

If Voice does not come from our body size, from where does IT come...?


As we create the community of singers that is Opera Organically, I've had the pleasure of witnessing the awesome nature of SUPPORT that comes from an absolutely positive perspective of Voice.  
The first two tenets of Opera Organically are:

1) Voice is always present. 
and
2) Voice is always right.

The support I speak about here, based on the first two tenets of O.O., goes MUCH deeper than the usual "breath support" that is commonly addressed in voice training.  The kind of support which comes from singing as a part of the Opera Organically community is present even when "breath support" is not.  

This deep kind of support is synonymous with our hopes and dreams.  It is one and the same with the little Voice inside that says "I want to sing."  It is the knowledge we all have that, with the right tools, time, dedication, and support, we can share something uniquely beautiful with the world.

I believe the reason many people have a hard time wrapping their minds around from where Voice comes is that It's really not something that can be understood with the mind alone.  To understand how Voice from a size 4 body can fill a stadium, we must enter what I call the 
Collective Heart of Voice.

It is very easy to find head knowledge about the singing voice in our culture.  In year 2000, when I graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, I came very close to joining a team at Bowling Green University which was going to build the world's largest model (40ft) of the human larynx.  I was fascinated with everything to do with singing, and the call to this project was strong.  However, the call of my HEART was louder, and I struck off to understand that thing which was not encouraged in my experience in music academia:  I now call it 
Heart Singing.

The challenging thing about Heart Singing is that it can only be experienced.  It doesn't exist separate from our very lives.  Head knowledge of voice can fill libraries; heart knowledge of voice fills our bodies, our families, our communities, and every corner of the Earth, if we only open our eyes and ears to see and hear It.  Head knowledge of Voice leads us to Heart knowledge, and vice versa--but to understand the nature of Voice which is much bigger than the individual, we need BOTH Head and Heart, simultaneously.

It is interesting to ask this question:

Is it so challenging to accept a huge voice coming from a tiny person because we instinctively know Voice IS larger than the individual?

*for me this question is mind-blowing, and is at the core of my work*

In my opinion, the paradigm of the singer being a lone individual, a separate source of singing--someone to worship and admire and put on a pedestal--is fading with our growing awareness of global Oneness.  

We are understanding that to fully ignite Voice in one person, we must also see the possibility of this ignition in ALL people--at least, that is the third tenet of Opera Organically:


3) Voice is Universal.


When I say to someone "My Voice is your Voice" most often I get "Nonononono" in response.  However once in a while I meet someone--and incidentally, this is happening more and more often in my experience--who nods and smiles when I say "My Voice is your Voice"...even as his/her expression of that Voice might be completely different than mine.

What we are really talking about is Heart Connection.

In Opera Organically talk, 
when I say "My Voice is Your Voice," I could also be saying "My Heart is Your Heart."

Filling a stadium and knowing where that voluminous Voice comes from has very little to do with "singing" and much, much more to do with Heart.

When we understand the natural power of desire, commitment, belief, hope, faith, life, and love, we know from where Voice comes--ah, YES, we know--
and this deep knowledge calls us 
to keep seeking supportive communities
like Opera Organically
where we can rest
in the power
of 
Who. We. ARE.
Together complete
Forever eternal
Infinitely powerful
and 
Life-enrichingly resonant. 


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.













Thursday, June 27, 2013

No. 245: Weapons of Mass Destruction




We music teachers
often employ unwittingly
weapons of mass destruction
in the name 
of "defining talent."

What is astounding to me 
is that, as a culture
we can look at a horse 
or a dog
or a guinea pig 
who's been neglected
whose basic needs have been witheld
and have immediate empathy

BUT

a Voice Who's been neglected
caged
abused
unseen
unheard
dishonored
shamed
shunned
spat upon
blamed
ignored
and beaten to a bloody, terrified pulp
is not only easy to look upon--

It's MAINSTREAM.

I'm flabbergasted.

I'm stunned.

I'm TIRED 
of this reality.

And so I'm committed through Opera Organically
to spreading the Awareness of a Love Which
Torrential in Its Power
Washes away the lies of incomplete definitions 
Providing the tools for rehabilitation
to a Most Hidden Abused Population
That Lives 
Right
Within US.

When we learn how to heal this hurt
We will never
ever
Be Voice-less again

And All the World Will Be Singing.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.





Thursday, June 20, 2013

No. 244: THIS Light ain't so little.



When I was a child,
I learned the popular tune:
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!"
and loved it.

Now I know, the love I had for this song as a child
was only
the Beginning.

Learning the power of one person's Light 
to Spark another's 
in the form of Realizing Universal Voice
through the absolute Security 
of a SAFE community 
dedicated to Love and Life--

Ahhhhhhh, THIS Light that burns amongst US, and because of US--not just as individuals, but as HUMANS living a SHARED experience of FREEDOM, POWER, and TRUTH of Expression...



THIS Light ain't so little.  



THIS Light, THIS Voice, is larger, more powerful, more real, more present and more resonant than any of us, alone, could imagine.


So therefore 


LET IT BURN!  


LET. IT. BURN.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.





Tuesday, June 18, 2013

No. 243: A Much Different Kind of Urgency



Our studies as singers are riddled with urgent messages:

"...If I did not have singing lessons from the time I was three there is no hope for me..."
"...If I don't have money I cannot learn to sing..."
"...Once I reach a certain age, a chance for a career is lost..."
"...If I can't read music, I cannot be a musician, and I cannot sing..."
"...S/he told me I cannot sing.  Therefore I cannot sing..."
"...Singing is scary.  I can't do it..."

"...Blah, blah blah, blah BLAH..."

Stop listening to these urgent messages sent from Fear.

Listen, instead, to the Still Small Voice inside YOU that says:

"There is more, there IS more...now, come and find It."
(Or something of that playfully mischievous and--at first--possibly freaky nature)

THIS is the most urgent message of all--and IT's the only One worth listening to
For It will lead you to your HeArt, 
Which in Its completeness 
and Utter Power
Will show You Who You Are
in all the glory
color
sensation
and sound
of LIFE.

LIFE is the only urgent pull worth living for.

Becoming a HeArt Singer is releasing the messages from Fear and Death
and stepping into
the vibrant TRUTH
of the beauty
we ARE 
at any moment.

Yeah, THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.


Friday, June 14, 2013

No. 242: A Great Awakening



If we allow It, Voice can carry us
Through a Great Awakening
Which, filled with all the depths and heights of pain and pleasure
Births Us into Music
Where Song and Life
Are One.

THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

No. 241: It is not a musician's job...



It is not a musician's job
(the ones you think can "discover you")
to care about your soul.

Do not be fooled 
into baring Voice
to a singer
who cares not--
and "only sings"--
for you may find your instrument
bloody and bruised 
on an altar
built of ignorance
to a deity unseen.

And do not venture to sing 
for a "non-singer"
who cannot dream
and places limits
on Possibility
before she's ever
tasted
It.

Sing, rather, as if Voice is equal to Your Soul
and Both
having equal value
deserving equal respect
love
and praise--
Both
demanding 
the heat of a refiner's fire
to mold the space
for grace--
and the understanding
to wield power that,
when fully embraced,
leads only to and from
caring
where every Voice is safe.

For I cannot sing
unless I believe every Voice is free.
It is just 
something
about me...

And knowing this about me, I know it about YOU...
and all those false deities
those beater-uppers and "voiceless" ones
fade into the bright light
of Truth:

WE. SING. Yes, that is true.  Voice is Me.  Voice IS You.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.







Monday, June 10, 2013

No. 241: The Greatest Challenge



The greatest challenge
is to understand 
that we singers 
on a most important level
are always and on(e)ly
Seekers of Voice.

The scope of what we do and are
is so much larger 
than what shallow culture tries to sell us
that when we sense It
all we want is to Live the Path.

Yes, this is singing's greatest challenge:
that in "realizing" Voice
we find OurSelves 
in the infinity of the Human HeArt
where an individual voice
ignited fully
can only sing as the clearest reflection
of what it means to be One Voice.

THIS is the deepest meaning of singing.  It is a meaning which defines US--we do not define It.  
To try is to silence the very Music Which We Already Are.
This is why it is the Greatest Challenge.

THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

No. 240: A Moth and Her Flame



A singer without Voice is like a moth searching for flame:
She thinks she's looking for light and warmth
In a maddening game:
Hide-and-seek in the dark--
Life never seems so stark

Until she makes a deadly 'mistake'
Flapping her wings too close to the heat
Enamored with the Light, in an ash-filled flash
She is at One with what she once did seek.

From that moment,
From deep in the passion of the Flame,
She knows Voice's true Home
And She will never be the same.



THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

No. 239: Dear World, I call you out.



Dear World, I call you out:

**caution caution cover blowing ALERT**

THERE IS NO "CAN" and "CAN'T" SING.

There is only "Do" and "Be"--and presence
and joy, and love, and creativity, and honor, 
and awareness, and feeling, and vibrating
with the awesomeness of being alive.

"Can" or "Cannot" sing is 
the most destructive paradigm
we human instruments 
could choose to embrace.

NOTHING--and NOONE
can say 
we "can't"
achieve ecstatic aliveness.

The idea is laughable.

THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.




Friday, May 24, 2013

No. 238: It's an Inside Job




If we really want to enliven the future of opera in the world
We've got to climb down
Out of our Heads
And be willing to speak and sing
From the HeArt.

We advocates like to intellectualize:
And we do this very well--
BUT
Nothing awakens souls to Music
Like a soul Itself awakened in Song

And the greatest courage
Is to know that THIS knowledge
HeArt centered 
Is enough
To grow the life-enriching Field of Singing.

One foot planted firmly in Mind
Is always essential
Though if we want to be inviting and not off-putting
The other foot
Must ALWAYS be

In HeArt.

THIS is Life.  THIS is Love. THIS is Opera Organically.