SINGING & SELF
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Meeting of the Blogger Minds: Braiding Sweetgrass
These three threads made me think of how everything is intersecting and interconnected. It reminded me that we are always stronger in community and shared experience…alone, a strand of sweetgrass is weak. But when bound together with others as a braid, it is unbreakable.
With a little help from my friends
The 60's revisited (Kimberly Barber, Jordan Station, ON, June 2022) As I was touring around the Niagara region last weekend, tasting wine, biking the backroads and generally enjoying life, I happened upon a plant nursery in Jordan Station that featured this 60's...
All in all
Final scene from Three Decembers as seen from backstage (Robert Butler, May 2022) Apologies in advance for the quality of the photo here...I am going to get higher res photos! But we are embracing the suck this week (to quote our friend Brené Brown) and not sweating...
Entering the cave
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek" --Joseph Campbell Tonight is the opening night of Three Decembers at Winnipeg's Little Opera Company and this past week has been a rollercoaster of doubt, fear, excitement, triumph, beauty, ugliness (especially...
No shortcuts
One more stream to ford (Kimberly Barber, April 2021) I'm not sure why I thought it would be trouble-free to return to rehearsing live opera after a 5 year hiatus...seriously! What was I thinking?!?! The last major production I did was for Tapestry Opera in 2017. So...
Proud Mama
So…not sure if I should say it, given all the talk about boundaries in recent posts. But I can’t help myself: I am so proud of these two amazing young women that I feel like…YES! A proud mama…
A fine line 2.0
It’s a fine line we walk when we deal with the psyche and emotions of those we teach.
A fine line
Singing is vulnerable stuff. And as it turns out, teaching singing is pretty vulnerable stuff too. Teaching and learning are such deeply integrative processes that it is sometimes difficult to discern where the line between them is.
We sing who we are
Photo by Bo Huang (2019) We can only dance with the one who brung us. Namely, ourselves. Try as we might to be someone different, wedge ourselves into a box that seems more palatable, our voices will always resist this crime against nature. I know, because I have...
Showing up
Captured from Jana's wall, October 2021 We are nearing the end of term and my students are getting into performance mode. This is the phase where I am reminding them to Show Up: where I ask them to truly come as themselves, open their artist hearts and let us hear the...
My Call to Courage
I have this to report from this mini-journey of courage: I can do hard things. I have strengths that I often don’t realize I have until I’m called upon to use them.
Hard things
Hard things (Kimberly Barber, February 2022) This week has been full of Hard Things. There's a war in Ukraine. The country is divided over the Emergencies Act, the so-called Freedom Convoy, COVID mandates and so much else. My kids have been struggling with various...
Playing on the heart string
Heart strings (Kimberly Barber, February 2022) This week on Valentine's Day, one of my former students, Sarah Stapleton, released her first album. It's called Heartstrings, and features songs Sarah wrote and recorded herself--it's largely a self-produced album...
Stolen focus
Blurry life (Kimberly Barber, February 2022) Where is my focus and who stole it??!? I know I'm not alone in feeling pulled in a zillion directions, unable to stay connected to the One. Singular. Task. At. Hand. Unitasking! Could that please be a thing? I listened last...
