Wrong and Strong - Welcoming Creative Bloopers

Wrong and Strong Welcoming Creative Bloopers! Dear Friend Welcoming Creative Bloopers If you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something. - Neil Gaiman In Community Choirs we have a saying 'wrong and strong' which is about encouraging singers to sing out, even when they are not feeling confident of a part yet.  When we strike out for anything in life there it may involve a few takes until it comes out how we'd like, but we have to be willing to give it a go.  Too often the mainstream media culture of blame and shame, celebrity judges and public votes can create a culture of fear about taking the creative risks that are necessary for growth.  So here's a little October tonic to help us love, learn and grow from our bloopers. Recovering from Mistakes via Repetition and Adjustment The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. - Dale Carnegie When we are children we recover and learn from mistakes via a process of repetition and adjustment.  When my baby nephew was learning to walk, I watched him taking the step in his garden time and time again, making slight adjustments every time - up, down, sideways, backwards - until he was confident he had mastered it.  He was totally absorbed in this process, with no judgement of any of the inevitable bumps along the way until he'd got it ... and then he’d move onto the next thing – such as banging all the cupboard doors!  Choir members are often amazed to find they can sing when they thought they couldn't.  What has happened is that they have found a space where they feel safe to repeat the process of singing enough times to feel confident.   It’s called practice and every singer of every level needs to do it and will make multitudes of helpful mistakes along the way. Editing Mistakes Creatively Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.  - Scott Adams We all have a natural desire for growth and improvement which too often becomes fused with competition and judgement.  We can learn to transform our Inner Critic into our Creative Editor.  The Inner Critic sabotages growth with incessant judgement and unhelpful critique.  The Creative Editor uses mistakes as signposts and says ‘hmm that’s interesting, the tone of this note was great, but I’d like to go over that one again,’ and gets busy with the process of repeating, refining, learning, growing.  When we cultivate this type of creative, curious listening for ourselves, we become resilient in the face of mistakes, judgement and rejection. Mistakes precede growth Life is all about evolution. What looks like a mistake to others has been a milestone in my life. - Amisha Patel Mistakes are what happens before things get really good.  I have made 'mistakes' whilst recording a song that brought in a fresh idea from left field.  JK Rowling received 12 rejections before finally getting a yes from a publisher for Harry Potter -"I pinned my 1st rejection letter to my kitchen wall because it gave me something in common with all my fave writers!"  she tweeted.  We have the companionship of life's courageous doers when we commit to keep singing through the bum notes until we reach that wonderful performance high, when it sounds great and everyone feels fantastic.  A natural amnesia kicks in at this point - the song we just wrestled with suddenly becomes the most amazing thing we've ever sung and if we do recall the struggle, we feel that it was all worth it. Mistakes are funny, endearing and human As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes. - Mel Brooks Celebrity blooper videos and film outtakes get millions of hits because mistakes are a wonderfully entertaining part of being human.  Everyone has to go through the process of learning and making mistakes and it's so much more fun if we allow ourselves to love the bloopers along the way. Wishing you the beautiful bounty of brilliant bloopers this October :) Website: www.therosewindow.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katierosewindow Twitter: @katierosewindow

Welcoming Peace
This Autumn

Dear Friend

Welcoming Change
The young become the old
and mysteries do unfold
for that's the way of time
no one, and nothing goes unchanged 
- Everything Must Change - Bernard Igner
There is the inkling of Autumn emerging in the air here in London, the feeling of the wheel of the year about to turn.  Opening the door to change enables us to flow freely and I've been loving listening to Gill Manly's stunning version ofEverything Must Change to help me roll with the changes.

Welcoming Our Voice
It only takes one voice at the right pitch to start an avalanche - Dianna Hardy
Our voice is an immensely powerful instrument which, when used with awareness, can change our world.  Welcoming our voice enables us to speak, present, sing and communicate with confidence, joy and vibrancy.  We can also then empower, inspire and encourage others around us to find their voice - competition transforms to celebration when we remember that everyone's voice is more unique than their finger print!  I'm looking forward to an exciting new term of choirs as I know that through the process of singing together we are all liberated in very unique ways.

Welcoming the Harmony of Difference
There’s something that’s quite other about singing the harmonies that’s more unifying than singing in unison – P. Peace Makers Choir 
One of the things I love about choirs is how, through the harmonising of unique voices, we create something bigger than all of us.  Around the world this September, people will be raising their voices for #WorldPeaceDay - and we'll be celebrating locally with a Peace Parade at Crystal Palace Food Market.
I'm also thrilled to be taking part in Croydon Composers again this year- a project which brings composers across varied cultural and genres to create new music together.  It's thrilling to see what happens when musical worlds collide and I can't wait to see what comes out of the musical pot this year.

Welcoming Our Treasures
As dyed in blood, the streaming vines appear,
While long and low the wind about them grieves;
The heart of Autumn must have broken here,
And poured its treasure out upon the leaves.
 - Woodbines in October - Charlotte Fisk Bates

 It takes just one falling leaf, a smudge of red, to light up a dull grey pavement.  Deep within us is a part of us that longs to pour out our treasure - our unspoken words, unwritten books or unsung songs - to share who we really are with the world.  It can feel so huge and overwhelming, like an unscalable mountain - yet every book is written a word at a time. I loved thisblog on marginal gains by James Clear which reminds us that just a 1% improvement can start a whole chain of positive change in our lives. As the seasons change, we can align to our True North with daily actions which share and grow the real treasures of love, joy, peace and fulfilment in life.

Wishing you the a warm, glowing, peaceful September


Website: www.therosewindow.org
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