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Today's Prompt: When my heart opens, I....
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Truths to remember:
As writers, we must choose to trust ourselves.
When we stay open to learning from our
deepest feelings and when we see it is
definitely safe to write them on the
page –our lives and our writing will
both be transformed.
It starts with permission.
Allow yourself to be pure, raw and completely
Yourself as you grow with each word you write.
Trust yourself as a writer and as a person.
Know your right readers connect with your heart
message no matter what shape or direction my
writing takes today.
Speaking of heart feelings, one of the masters
of feeling with the heart was Helen Keller. This
quote from her is famous:
“The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in
the heart.”
Heart-feelings. Helen Keller has been a hero of mine
since I was a little girl. I completely understand
this quote. I feel this quote in my blood, in my
bones, in my vocal chords.
Today we will explore deep moments of emotion.
Open your mind heart to receive that clear, emotional
memory as you listen to a story from my life.
It was a Saturday morning a couple years ago and
it began like many other of my days: calendar filled
with errands, places to be, people to see,
conversations to have and tasks to complete.
It was after the first couple hours driving around
that I started getting flustered.
I could not find my walkman. The Walkman I
could live without: I had only had it for several weeks.
The upset was from the tape that
was lost along with the Walkman.
It was the recording of the music I was preparing
for an upcoming recital.
The music is "Vedrai, Carino" by Mozart. It is my first
attempt at singing an Aria.
I learned the song phonetically as I do not speak Italian.
Until now, I have never sung in Italian. English,
German and Latin, yes.
Italian? Not at that point.
Katherine, my then eleven-year-old listened patiently
as I recounted where the missing Walkman might
be hiding, barely out of reach.
As I took a breath, she said with her face filled
with peace and calm: "Mommy, I know you like
challenges. I wonder, though, why you didn't
choose to learn the language before you
decided to sing the song?"
I did the motherly thing.
I kept driving without answering.
As we entered a parking lot, I explained that
Celine Dion sang English before she spoke it.
What I found difficult to put into words was how
it felt to sing the aria itself, to lose myself in words
I do not understand beyond the feeling they give
me and the meaning I read in the English
translation.
How do I describe to daughter how my heart feels
as my voice soars to hit a whole string of high notes
I never thought I could sing?
How do I explain how it feels to begin the note in my
belly and have it roll up through my heart and out the
top of my head, ring through my ears and then
down my arms and out my hands?
How do I explain the tears that filled my eyes
without warning and the chills which run from the
top of my neck to the base of my spine?
Katherine questioned me about my love of
challenges.
Challenges? Did she mean trials, problems,
"gaps"? I choose to see it differently.
What if we looked at challenges as callings?
Challenges may be used to pull us out of
the muck and mire of limiting beliefs.
Nothing has worked better for me in
processing false expectations and both
past and present sadness or hurt.
I found my walkman and my tape before the end
of the day. I practiced "Vedrai" in many small
chunks throughout the next two
days.
As Monday morning dawned, I woke up hearing
myself singing it repeatedly.
Last night I sang the aria for the first time for
my teacher, Amber.
She coached me on improving my pronunciation
and my tone. She had me practice as she observed
nuances such as how my tongue was placed
in my mouth and how to have the instrument of
my body do more of the production instead
isolating the sound creation in my throat and
mouth.
She complimented me on how well the language
was sounding as well as how clear it was that
I had been practicing.
Amber further affirmed me by saying "I can tell you
have been singing a lot just from hearing your solo
in `Razzle Dazzle'"
You see, that's another benefit of rising to the top
along with your challenges: there are outcomes
that come to you as if by magic.
They stretch miles beyond the challenge itself.
This overflow is natural, effortless and rewarding
beyond any thing you might have planned.
So far, I wasn't ever able to give Katherine
a complete answer to her question.
Perhaps next time I will sing the response.
Open your mind-heart to an experience in your
life that brought your heart-feeling to a space
like this - listen again to my descriptions:
How do I describe to daughter how my heart feels
as my voice soars to hit a whole string of high notes
I never thought I could sing?
How do I explain how it feels to begin the note in my
belly and have it roll up through my heart and out the
top of my head, ring through my ears and then
down my arms and out my hands?
How do I explain the tears which spring to my eyes
without warning and the chills which run from the
top of my neck to the base of my spine?
Prepare to Write:
Now open to your own emotional-response-moment for writing inspiration.
Remember a moment from your own life
where your heart opened through an
emotional experience.
Take a moment to re-visit that moment.
Use your senses to remember.
Prompt: When my heart opened, I saw…
When my heart opened, I heard…
When my heart opened, I touched…
When my heart opened, I tasted….
When my heart opened, I smelled….
If your pencil, pen, or fingers on the keyboard stop
moving, simply use the familiar prompt:
- "I remember."
Hold the memory –
Use your senses to remember.
Begin to write, starting with whichever
Sense is the most likely to stir up
Your writing.
When my heart opened, I saw…
When my heart opened, I heard…
When my heart opened, I touched…
When my heart opened, I tasted….
When my heart opened, I smelled….
Hold this positive heart-emotion - memory close
throughout the day. Re-read your writing, perhaps,
or simply close your eyes and transport yourself
to that moment. You may even choose to carry
the memory close beyond the day and
into tomorrow.
Please share your writing with us using Mr. Linky. If you use this prompt to blog, we would love to know and include you in our community. Mr. Linky is an easy creative tool to help connections happen easily.
Add your writing related blog posts using Mr. Linky so that we may stay in touch, as a community.
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