Choir starts up again Oct 7th!

Interested in singing with wonderful women who make happy harmonies? Come by the Rose Crystal Studios 7:30 on Oct 7, 14 or 21. The first three weeks are open for anyone to come and see what a choir practice is like and decide if you would like to join.

I can’t wait to see who is returning from last year and I look forward to meeting the new women too.

Heartsong Concert Tickets

Concert tickets are available at Artworks this year and also at the door. Watch the papers for more info on the concert and on the KidzPositive charity we support.

Get ready for the 2009 Heart Song Concert

Nancy is writing the article about the concert this year, and I think the Sounder is writing one too. So for now I’m just sharing the deets.
Where: Phoenix Auditorium at the Haven Resort on Gabriola

When: Sunday, June 14th at 7.30

Tickets will be availble at the door and in advance…though I’m not sure where. Nancy will know. And I’ll be putting her article up soon. Patience is a virtue…

Wendell Berry Quote

We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world.  We have been wrong.
We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us.  And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it.
We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits.  But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery: we will never clearly understand it.  We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.
We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence.  For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.
Wendell Berry, Recollected Essays

Choir beats back blood pressure!

Here’s a fabulous message from one of our choir gals,

I wanted to share with you, and maybe you knew this already, that singing is good for the body. My doctor suggested I monitor my blood pressure at home, which I have been doing. And.. after choir it was the lowest it’s been in quite a while !! Song and choir and good women – that’ll do it.

cheers,
Lynda

And just in case you’re the type to want proof, here’s a link to a doctoral thesis on the subject! And the McGill University website says,

Choral singing increases immunity, reduces depression, improves cognitive function and mood, and increases feelings of wellbeing, according to research at the University of Western Ontario. It can also stop the voice from ageing. Work at Sydney University shows singing helps people cope with chronic pain better, while a University of Frankfurt team found choral singing lowers stress levels and boosts the immune system. A survey of singers by Canterbury Christ Church University shows they had improved lung function and breathing, and better mood.Singing also increases blood levels of the “love hormone” oxytocin, which is released during intimacy.

Concert Pics 2008

The Moment by Margaret Atwood

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long-ago voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say I own this,

is the same moment the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

We’re back!!! “Gratefulness; the heart of prayer”

What a wonderful night.

This is last night’s quote – many layered, I think.

With love,

Jen

David Stendhal-Rast in “Gratefulness; the heart of prayer”

Life is give-and-take not give or take. Spasmodic gasping is one thing, healthy breathing another. When we take a hearty breath, we give ourselves to the air we inhale: and when we give it out again, we take a quick break from breathing. This intimate intricacy of give-and-take is a key to healthy living on every level of life. We are not playing off giving against taking. We are playing off life-giving give-and-take against a mere taking that is as deadly as a mere giving. It matters little whether you merely take a breath and stop or give a breath and stop there. In either case, you’re dead.

We did it again women!

We sang to a packed house, we more or less stuck to our parts and the concert helped to raise $2,500 for Kidzpositive! I’d call that an outstanding success! Thanks to all who attended, helped, participated, gave money, heart, spirit – everything came together and made a little miracle.

Choir may be wrapped up for the summer but it is such a tremendous part of all our lives that it seems to creep in – like the blackberries. We see each other around, at the Village or the garden store, or the bank. We hum our songs as we garden, or drive, or walk. What gorgeous gifts we share with each other and how blessed we are to be able to share what we have with women and children in need in Africa.

Why Sing for Africa?

We have to meet the outer world with our inner world or existence will crush us. The South African people are an inspired example of this. They sweetly prove with their irrepressible spirit that song is not a luxury but a necessary way of being in the world, a way of keeping the soul anchored in the world in hard time. The gift of Africa tells us that song is the only thing that can outlast brutality.
Mark Nepo