Harmonious Expression

Harmonious Expression “In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.” - Vincent Van Gogh Dear Friend For many of us our voice is a crucial part of our daily activity and the boom in mobile phone technology demonstrates the strength of our desire to feel connected and in communication with each other. Here’s a few thoughts on the qualities of harmonious expression. Intention This basically means being very clear about WHY we are sounding/singing/ speaking. Intention brings connection to our deeper levels of awareness and motivation and produces clarity of communication.  If I waffle on about something without really knowing why it’s important to me, I will sound disconnected and boring.  If I am transparent about my intent to resolve an issue, my communication will be clear and invite others to connect with me. Embodiment Our voice is an instrument that resides within our bodies.  It is intimately connected to all levels of our wellbeing and is supported by a healthy diet, regular exercise and relaxation practices. Helpful exercises include those that encourage deep breathing, open posture and a relaxed body - allowing our voice to become fully embodied and resonant. Spontaneity Every act of expression involves a level of risk-taking - venturing into the unknown, not knowing how we will be received.  Some expressions such as  ‘can you pass the salt?’ are low risk, whereas giving a speech to a crowded conference or raising a difficult issue with a partner raises the stakes.  The way to befriend this is to connect with our spontaneity - the most alive part of us that loves taking risks because it knows that is how we grow, through fully experiencing the present moment.  Recalling what we loved doing as children - splashing in puddles or climbing up trees - helps us reconnect with our spontaneity, as does playing games and meditating.  Spontaneity brings us into a focussed yet expansive state, allowing us to be playful, creative, self-aware and receptive. Rhythm The tempo of our expression marks it out in time and space - if we are person who is anxious about time or taking up airspace we may rush our speech, whereas if we are loose around time we may find ourselves getting into prolonged conversations or running overtime in presentations.  Breathing exercises can be really helpful here, enabling us to regulate our pace - as can dancing or rhythm games that heighten our awareness and enjoyment of our movement through time and space. Harmony Every expression takes place in a context and community - even if we are whistling alone whilst walking a country path, our whistle is part of a soundscape that includes rustling leaves, scurrying insects and tweeting birds.   Harmonising involves being true to our own unique sound whilst blending it with everything around us - we may raise our voice in a noisy bar or whisper in a quiet place of worship.  In choral singing we learn to blend with those around us, developing a stereophonic listening that allows us to both hear ourselves and attune to the sound of the whole group.  This emphasises that expression is as much about listening as it is as sounding and that fine tuning our inner and outer listening enables us to communicate harmoniously. Wishing you a happy and harmonious July

Hearing Our Heritage

Hearing Our Heritage
Dear Friend
You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared - Robbie Robertson

I’ve found myself tracking back through time recently -  making a piece for Harefield Hospital’s Centenary Anzac Day Tea Party, preparing for Croydon Heritage Festival and sharing reminiscence sessions about VE Day with one of my elders singing groups - all of which has emphasised the value of listening to the songs and stories of the days gone by.

 

Detecting the empty spaces
History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies. - Alexis De Tocqueville
My inner detective loves following the trail of old stories and finding out what happened next in the unknown spaces of the past.  The word Heritage takes its roots from words meaning “empty, left behind.”  The past is actually full to bursting with the lives that inhabited it, it is only our perspective, that would suggest something is missing or unseen - as we are those who are left behind to puzzle on it.  The inevitable emptiness in our attempts to reflect on the past is ultimately a creative space in which we make connections that can inform our contribution in the present.

Connections
If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.  - Michael Crichton
Reading about Croydon’s musical history has definitely enriched and surprised me.  I now walk the streets with more awareness  - I can see the punks spitting in the concrete corners and hear the strain of orchestras playing the works of composers who passed there before me.  Hearing the stories of elders in my singing groups brings me into empathic connection with them - suddenly I am a child with them, watching a Nazi fall from the sky - as they draw me into the stories of their lives.  Story weaves us together, helping us understand how we all came to be as we are in the present and how we are all inextricably connected.

Patterns & Codebreakers
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. -  Aldous Huxley
I recently read Louis de Bernieres extraordinary novel Birds Without Wings, set in Anatolia preceding and during World War I.  It tells the story of the series of sequential waves of war, genocide and destruction that swept through what was to emerge as Turkey.  History is made personal through the eyes of its survivors, characters living in the midst of top-down decisions that ravaged communities.  The futile war of identity - ‘I am this, you are that, I must kill you because you are wrong/different’ - continues its bloody, vengeful march through many parts of the world today.  So many patterns are repeated and very little appears to be learned, yet there have been significant code-breakers - those who like Ghandi and Martin Luther King had the courage to stand up and break through the relentless rumbling of history, acting as inspiration for us to do the same on a personal and social level.

Contribution
Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. - Marge Pierce
A wise man I know keeps reminding me that the world is different because we are in it. That is not to swell our egos, we are still only the size of a very small ant in the vast landscape of past, present and future, but nonetheless, without each of us the world would not be the same.  Connecting with the past prompts reflection on what are we creating in the present - what am I going to do with my small dot in space while I am still alive to occupy it and what will my legacy be? - what songs and stories will I leave in the empty space between past, present and future….?

Wishing you a magical June