11 January
Personal Prompt: Name one thing you love that you don’t have time to do anymore. Come up with a plan to try and incorporate that activity back into your life.
Well I’m currently unemployed – so time is no impediment to anything I wish to do. However motivation, money and means have stopped me doing many things. I think the most practical – and one of the most sorely missed – is singing.
I love music. I love it with a passion. So much so that I became a musician and a music teacher and dedicated all my working years to it. I really love music. And I don’t want to do it any more. I am totally ready to leave behind my full teaching and performing career. I have done the best I could and touched some lives and had some fabulous experiences. But I just can’t do it any more. I am physically and mentally exhausted and worn out and ready to walk away without a second glance.
However the thought of a life with no music, with no performing, no green rooms and bump outs and after show parties. No endless sessions of rehearsal leading to the onstage excitement of “one chance to get it right”. No more cameraderie from an eclectic, mixed bunch of humans, brought together solely by their desire to make music together – the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the talented and the squeamishly awful. All with a single, united purpose.
I really miss singing. I really miss my singing voice. I really miss being lost in the sound of the chorus – feeling the emotional soaring that only music can offer. I really miss it.
By the end of this year, I hope to have singing back in my life. Bit by bit, I can get my voice back, do some workshops, accept some gigs and start singing again. Back to soaring, soul-satisfying, singing.
Creative Prompt: You can have dinner with any famous person (living or deceased), who do you dine with and why?
I would like to have dinner with Barack Obama.
He is a truly great man and I am privileged to have lived in his lifetime. He exudes confidence and charisma, intelligence and compassion, love and loyalty. He is passionate about anything he believes in – be it healthcare reform, gun control, equality, faith, his children, or his beloved wife.
He just shines “goodness”. There is something about everyone we meet, a look in their eye, or a stance, or a mannerism, that gives away true character. And Barack Obama is a good man. Not a perfect man – no such thing exists, nor should it. But he is a good man.
He is a brilliant orator. I cannot remember anyone in my lifetime delivering speeches in such a manner. Whether you agree with his political stance or not, it cannot be denied he is a wonderful orator and has delivered some historic speeches, the likes of which we may not see for a long time to come.
I would love to have dinner with Barack Obama to say I have been in the presence of greatness. I trust he would treat everyone at the table with respect, but would almost certainly have a commanding presence and a quick wit. I would love to hear his views on the future – post politics. What he dreams of. What he believes in. I would love to hear his views on my own little world – my life and my children. I would love to meet a great man, who has tried to do great things, under great pressure. A man who has always maintained dignity, respect, humour and compassion.
I would like to have dinner with Barack Obama.
