My garden plots are producing almost nothing, yet I'm smiling and feeling refreshed. How did I, one ambitious gardener, get here? What might that mean for you and your enjoyment and growth in your voice? 

This will seem like a gardening article...it transcends and includes gardening and singing and really the things in life that matter to you but that you can skip out on if you want.  You can skip out on them,  but you'll look back on your life and realize that you died with a song still in your heart. 

My dream is that this article changes that for you, or reassures you of your chosen steps, or if nothing else, helps you pop on a different pair of glasses for a moment to give you a break from your regularly scheduled programming. 

Back to the garden...

When I first got my garden plot...I went ALL OUT! My goal was to have a "Garden of Eden" of sorts. To have food, color and fragrance year round, attract wildlife, have a pond, have a cool little tunnel for grapes that you can walk under, the works. Forget minimalism,  I was a garden maximalist! y  

Then my parents died. Both of them in the span of just a few months. 

Everything seemed to just slow down. I had invested so much into this little garden plot and I was working so hard for the garden, caring for the garden, that I forgot what was actually required to let the garden care for me. The mourning process kind of took over, so at the garden, I really wasn't working on any major projects, I would just go and do little things...pull a weed over here, look at a flower over there...I'd plant a few seeds, but nothing like the monolith effort-epic seed sowing I used to undertake. It was just the minimum. I thought to myself "what's the minimum I need to do to keep this going?". 

Then over time, I started to realize that I needed to achieve very little at the garden, to feel the sense of peace, belonging and comfort that direct interaction with nature can bring you. Recently, I went all out again and sowed more seeds than I had ever sown in my life. It's hard not to feel hopeful after doing that, but this time, I didn't think it always had to be this effort level. 

So now, I'm exploring (and so far enjoying) a different perspective. I can see that although I absolutely want the best damn garden ever, I also see how little I truly need to accomplish to actually feel so much better from time in the garden. I'm so glad I didn't quit because there were times I just couldn't invest as much I wanted to into it. Now life isn't all flowers and vegetables. Certainly not at my garden. In fact, for various reasons, I can see that several of the other gardeners are mysteriously doing much better than me at this whole gardening thing, so I have a lot to figure out as an experienced indoor gardener but amateur outdoor gardener. 

So instead of wanting to quit totally, I'm actually smiling, feeling totally refreshed after some time at the garden, despite it producing nearly nothing...or did it? I think it produced a little space in myself for peace...even during hard times. 

I find a lot of parallels between investing in those things that you don't have to do (gardening, voice lessons) but would love to do. I've asked the question "do you need to care for lessons right now?... or do you need lessons to care for you?". Maybe you too, are going through a difficult, stressful time in your life. I'm not looking to add more to your plate, but rather to make sure you left room for dessert. So the rules are little different here. 

So in lessons, should you be practicing? It just depends. My goal is to help you nurture a life-long love story with singing. I want to help you develop a thriving life-long relationship with music, your voice and your heart. Just like in any relationship, sometimes one person is tired, mourning, distracted, etc. and the other person is there to care for them. So there are times when I will push you to go all out, to practice twice a day and send in recordings as proof. Then there are other times, when what you really need right now is a moment to clear your mind get fully into the present with music, so you don't lose connection with the here and now while you're rushing to get over there, tomorrow. In those times, lessons are a welcome break from life. 

Likewise for me, there were times where I invested of all of my resources  into my singing and was twiddling my thumbs wondering if I would get any better. Then other times, I just sat at the piano, sung some easy songs, let it all go, and found out someone was listening and told me it was beautiful. 

Lessons have been like that...and right now, I'm noticing we need a little more of that.  Let's do that more often, shall we? 

You'll find when things are loved, they naturally tend to grow.  I want make sure your love for singing is cherished first,  while we work on growing. 

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