Happy Equinox, Brave Creatives! Here on the Salish Sea near Seattle, WA, we’ve bathed in a glorious week of early spring sunshine, a balm to our rain-soaked souls. May this song for my friend, the Great Blue Heron, soothe your nervous system, bring calm to your heart, and inspire your Brave Voice. What does your heart sing for?
I walk this beach several times daily, singing my love for the stunning privilege of living right here, right now. Still, I didn’t sing in public for many years.
I am not alone in this. I imagine your natural, wild, outrageous voice was squelched, too. Perhaps you did this yourself. It’s not your fault, darlin.’
Our Monkeys of Fear hold memories in our cells. We were told we were too much. We were told we sounded off-key. That we should not sing. We are too loud. We are too emotional. Our voice is ugly. Ugly crying, we call it.
We are here to melt those old stories about our voices and our unique expression. With loving devotion to our creative practices. Ideally, in a community of support.
As a kid, I sang and danced like a wild thing. But like so many of us, trauma, abuse, and fear numbed my voice and my free spirit. I tucked my wild beauty into a corporate creative suit, desperately seeking respect in the heartless skyscrapers of Manhattan's big media. We moved to Suquamish, a seaside village in Washington State, to raise our kids. Rita Old Coyote, a gorgeous Native elder, guided me in the earth-honoring traditions of her people. In her sweat lodge, I began to sing again and to heal.
With the early deaths of seven friends, midlife brought its deep, uncomfortable magic. I felt an urgent call to be real AF. To unwind the layers I’d built to protect my heart. To tend what matters most. I craved singing with my full potency. To be brave.
A dear friend invited me to co-create a community devoted to initiation for young women, culminating in a solo vision quest. As we sang together, our voices stirred our souls awake. Singing brought our circle closer, creating trust and unity. Singing brought a sense of safety and comfort on those dark nights alone on the mountain.
Our society’s fear of singing is a recent development. Singing was not just for the famous, gifted, or talented. An ancient technology that connects us to something bigger, every culture on Earth has always sung together. Even the cosmos sings.1
Healing my heart and melting my fears of singing empowers me to share my brave voice on stages, to sing with a vocal improv ensemble, to practice circle singing with the maestro (and gorgeous human) Bobby McFerrin, to study and teach vocal sound healing, and to tour my one-woman musical on the west coast.
Today I sing for the Salish Sea, where I’m so blessed to live. I sing with the birds, sky, whales, sea lions, fish, and trees. It’s my daily love song for Mama Earth and her waters. Humans are over 80% saltwater, too. Our voices vibrate the liquids in our bodies. Making sound brings us into resonance and harmony with the greater world.
In Sufi lore, we are here to utterly fall in love with the beloved, the essence of our true nature. The beloved resides deep within, yet she wants to expand outward through our expression. She gets to travel through our creative, brave voices.
In my perfect world, everyone would feel free to sing, to make sounds of all kinds, to experience the joys of harmonic expression. To feel the release of tension in our bodies. To feel more unity, and more connected to each other. I offer local singing and sounding workshops for this: to free the wild beauty in our voices.
Here’s my most simple tip to open your voice. Take in a deep inhale, and when you exhale, say: “Ahhhhhhhhh.” This can be hard for some, but add a little sound to your sigh (to stimulate the Vagal nerve). Do you feel this balm for your body and your voice?
🗣️ Your comments are Beautiful and Brave.
Do you adore the ocean, like I do? How do you feel near water?
As a child, did you sing and dance freely?
Did anyone ever tell you not to sing? Or stifle your creative expression?
Would you value an intimate community of support to reclaim your brave voice?
Thank you for breathing: ahhhh 😘 Please drop a heart, a comment, or share this with a beloved who craves more freedom to express a full range of emotions. Let’s co-create a home for wild voices here. More to come,
2,500 years ago, Pythagoras proposed that the Sun, Moon and planets each emit unique hums based on their orbital properties: the “music of the spheres.” Today, astronomers explain the phenomenon of Orbital Resonance, at Astronomy.com.
Reclaiming our Wild Voices