Earlier in the week, I somehow got a slug stuck to my bare foot - in the house! It must've hitched a ride on my shoe, then I stepped on it by the door.
Could it be a message for me to slow down? (Maybe, if I were to allow that kind of thing.)
So the boy and I spent some time hiking this weekend. It was a real effort to make the decision to take the time out from the mountain of work, but well worth it.
I'll carry that lesson moving forward and make sure I make time to just recharge.
Wishing you all the time to relax for a bit, no matter how busy life is.
So a thing happened and I may or may not have embarrassed myself in front of millions of people.
See, what had happened was... I was asked to participate in a segment being filmed for an online channel with millions of subscribers, with a vocal coach who has millions of followers.
I am a professional singer. I've coached professionally and produced singers in high profile situations. I am hired to sing. I show up, sometimes last minute, tired or not, and nail it.
For this segment, I showed up. I sang. My voice cracked. It cracked a lot.
We had a lovely on-air chat before I sang one of my original songs from my album released about ten years ago. It was recorded before my son was born, before all the physical therapy, before the surgeries. I had decided the night before that I would sing "Everywhere," mainly because of its relevance to current world happenings.
I didn't preface the whole performance with how tired I was. Singers do that all the time. It sounds like an excuse to me. It doesn't matter how challenged my days are. It doesn't matter how stressed out I might be. It doesn't matter how sore my abs are from pulling off a pushup challenge duet with a body builder who came up on my TikTok feed. As a professional, you're there on time and you just do it.
In keeping with that spirit and energy now... oh wait! Did I skip the part about the pink boxing gloves? Let me go back to the segment: The next thing I knew, I was wearing pink boxing gloves and going through a sort of vocal exercise boot camp, where I was running and jumping in place while holding my diaphragm and trying to repeat the voice warmup routine.
I sang my song again afterward, without all the cracks. :)
In keeping with the spirit and energy of a "no excuses" mindset, I decided to seriously step up my vocal exercises. It's important to understand that I work out a lot - six days a week usually. My schedule is completely packed as a performer AND full-time mom. I made a commitment to work on vocal exercises WHILE doing my workouts everyday. I began to record my vocal journey.
As I write this on day four, my voice is fatigued. I've decided to be on vocal rest until I see my doctor tomorrow. I will pick up right where I left off when I am cleared to use my voice again. Good health is an absolute must.
I'm planning to record a thirty day vocal journey. It's important to me to persevere and to hold myself accountable. Determination pays off and there is always something to learn and something to improve. These are new times and the world keeps changing. We all have got to grow and evolve. Also, my son watches every move I make. Teaching him by my example is crucial.
It doesn't matter if I make mistakes. It will not be perfect. What's important here is the effort, the determination, the dedication. I need to make myself proud.
Tremendous thanks to Cheryl Porter, Talent Recap, and Billy Blanks Jr. for everything, especially for inspiring this journey!
To be honest, I'm a bit overwhelmed right now. So instead of staying up too late and stressing out writing this blog, I'm going to look at lovely and peaceful videos we took of some deer in the neighborhood.
Care to join me? This week's blog is going to be my mental health break.
This was from today:
From Saturday:
Saturday when a little one appeared:
I found these so relaxing to watch. This was a much needed, little time out.
Wishing us all a little more time to relax this week. Hope you all had a good holiday.
The neighborhood high school was having a marching band event. We went to check it out. We weren't there long and kept a safe distance from all others, but it had a profound impact.
When Zachary came home he immediately went to his instruments and began marching around. He found a mic and did announcing just as they had done on the field. He said he wanted to be in the band when he's a big kid and asked his dad what marching band was like. (Russ played several instruments with his marching band when he was in school.)
I was reminded how important it is to focus on and surround ourselves with the things we want to do. They lead our minds and Spirits in the direction we want to go. News stories about social media and algorithms drove the point home. We need to make a conscious effort to direct ourselves where we want to be, not just be guided by what we like to complain about. Zachary and I spent a little time watching some marching bands and it opened up a whole world of thoughts and actions. More of that please.
