Twenty years ago, I realized that one of my biggest regrets was never having trained my voice. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t stop me from singing in choirs and choruses, at parties and in the shower. I just love singing. But I wanted to be better.
When someone in my choir suggested a vocal coach, I found one and studied with him for a few months, even performed in a couple of his recitals from the stage of the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville.
But, as it sometimes will, life intervened. Lessons were expensive, I was traveling a lot for work, and at the time was in a relationship that made it difficult for me to sing in the choir.
Fast forward to today. My current reality includes some exciting changes (the launch of my book), and devastatingly sad losses (the love of my life) – and it is times like these that we often reconsider where there are opportunities to add joy to our lives.
Why singing, of course!
As soon as I decided I was going to put my energy into singing, I serendipitously sat next to a woman who works with classical vocal performers. Oh yes, she knew someone and here is his number. I called him the next day and had my first lesson/tryout three days after that. Was I anxious and timid? Yes! Was it amazing and fun? Yes!
This week, think of something you used to love or wanted to explore that got “lost in the shuffle,” or you never found the time to do it. Don’t postpone joy or adventure. Don’t compare incorporating joy to eating dessert – something you have to wait for until you’ve cleaned your plate (or your to-do list). Do it now.
Once you commit, you’ll be amazed at the ways resources will come to help make it possible.
I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from W.H. Murray of the Scottish Himalayan Expedition:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth—the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans—the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sort of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events, issues and decisions, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no one could have dreamed, would have come their way…”
Until next Tuesday,
Elizabeth