Blithely Written; Commensurately Read

         I live life mostly organically—not so much with food as with thought and action. What I feel you can see from ten miles away on my face. What I know to be true, you can be sure I’ll act on 99% of the time. (I’m no saint.) But one thing is absolutely sure, when I sit at the computer to write this blog, and I’m not exactly sure what to write or am not fully passionate about it, the number of readers drops from around 31,000 about 40%. Yes, you are in a growing number of Bo’s blog readers. And keep sharing, because it obviously is working.

            I don’t know if many of you know that what I did when I first came to Nashville was teach vocal lessons. I still have a few select people I teach. (Smile if you’re one of them.) I had been a vocal coach since I was 18. So I have been doing this for… let’s see 52 – 18 years old = 100 years.

            One thing I stress with every singer I teach is that very few people are interested in whether or not you have a pretty voice. More people value being able to hear the passion in your heart. That is something to strive for. To do that, you have to be completely resigned to letting go of all the muscles restricting your voice from the chest to the neck, which is your fifth chakra.  (For people who don’t know about chakras, check out some links to other of my blogs about chakras.)

            The fifth chakra is where you are able to communicate your truth. So, if this part of your body is tight (your throat), then you can’t say what you believe or feel. In singing, you can hear in a person’s cantor whether or not they are free there, because tightness causes flatness or sharpness in the timbre of the voice. It also causes a pinched sound, which doesn’t make us want to listen for more than a minute.

            However, when someone sings from his/her gut, it goes right to our hearts. This kind of passionate singing makes for a great artist, whether it’s beautiful or raspy.

            As for everyday life, tightness in the throat chakra can contribute to not being able to say how you feel or never speaking up for yourself. If this is you, you can help that problem with some simple voice lessons, even if you’re not a singer or ever plan to be. Freeing your voice IS freeing your passion.

            Passion can be heard from the rooftops if you let your soul go there. I dream of the day that my life can be so full of passion that every move I make will cause the entire world to shift slightly toward peace and love and joy and happiness. Wouldn’t that be great?

            Quantum Physicists know that every change we make in our own lives effects the entire world, perhaps minutely or maybe even on a grand scale. So, grand movements forward, mean a better future for everyone. Just think about it, if just one strong step forward with one person can effect an entire world, what can an entire nation of people stepping forward do to effect the world?

            I think that happened after the election. When I watched President Obama’s and Gov. Romney’s speeches, both seemed to be on the same page: MOVE FORWARD—DON’T LET THIS ELECTION STOP YOU FROM YOUR GAME PLAN—WORK WITH EACH OTHER.  There was nothing more inspiring than hearing Pres. Obama say he was looking forward to getting together with Mitt Romney to hear his ideas. I thought that moment was conciliatory and a loving choice for the entire nation. These are the kinds of words we need to be hearing from our leaders.

            And of course, I cried when President Obama mentioned that we have to be mindful of all people, race, gender or sexuality. That blew me away. I don’t think any president in history has been so bold. And his words rang from the hilltops and touched hearts of people who felt downtrodden and hurt and not heard ever, I’m absolutely sure.

            I know in that moment, I felt the pulse of the earth change. If other countries were watching, as I suspect they were, they will rise to the challenge of treating all people fairly in their countries as well. It all starts with a seed of passion.

            Passion is great! Let’s all dig deeper in our lives and try to find what really makes our hearts and minds rise to the occasion and sing to the pleasures of our souls!