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.