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.

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.

No. 237: Enemy Images

The best way 

to control a voice

(with a small "v")

is to tell it 

it's not any good.

To tell it 

it's not "safe"

That it will hurt

embarrass

or 

shame.

Voice with a capital "V"

however

lives far beyond these games.

Voice with a capital "V"

is no one's enemy

except for untruth.

Voice with a capital "V"

blesses Us

beyond imagination.

But for this to happen

We must

let go 

of the enemy images

of Voice

our culture feeds us.

We must live

for,

from,

and as

True Voice.

The "How" is My Quest, My Breath, My Heartbeat.

With the Absolute Courage of Voice,

It is Yours, too. 

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

No. 236: Why wait...?

Why wait until we die

to sing?

Western culture 

in particular

teaches of 

"angels singing in heaven."

I have heard countless times

"I have no voice here--but in heaven..."

Who is telling us these half-truths...?

And why do we swallow them...?

Opera Organically is about FULLY acknowledging

that finding Voice

MANIFESTS

Heaven on Earth:

This is a secret closely guarded no more!!!

Organic singing is ecstatic.

When we experience It, 

We catch glimpse after glimpse

of what it means to BE

angels walking on this planet.

If this idea scares you

Ask yourself WHY...

You may find 

there are people threatened 

by a walking talking Voice of Life.

Ahhhh...but then, walk in the woods

or in a garden,

and you will know

Voice's true friends

--at least until word spreads--

the trees and the moss,

the flowers and crawling creatures...

 Yes, they know how to sing eternally NOW.

They know how to sing eternally NOW.

And We 

can learn from them.

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

No. 235: What are we asking?

Are we asking Voice

what It can do for Us...?

Or are we asking

What We can do for It...?

To ask the first is to walk a paved road

where the going is smooth

but there is no grass under our feet, 

and each step

is the same.

To ask the second is to know

We ARE the grass,

the flowers, the trees, the night sounds,

the stars, the sun, the sky--all the Music we see,

hear, feel and BE along the Way.

*breathe in...breathe out*

...Ahhh...

*heartbeat*

The second Question is the One I choose.

...how about You?

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

No. 234: Voice Sings. That is All.

Voice Sings.  That is All.

Her singing may bring praise.

It may bring reward and acknowledgment.

It may also bring scorn and hatred.

Voice has the Power

to awaken every emotion--

for It has the Power 

to awaken Humanity.

To embrace Voice in All it brings Us:

the Joy, the Pain, the Love,

the Darkness, the Light,

is to know Its true nature.

Voice is a mirror to Life.

No. 233: It Doesn't Really Matter...

It doesn't really matter what I say

--or what anyone else says-- 

of your Voice.

It only matters what Voice says of Voice.

And what of the difference between the two?

Listening to the first 

is like dodging (wo)man-made bullets.

Listening to the second

is like bathing

in all the Love in the Universe.

Which do YOU choose?