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I did a thing!
May. 6th, 2013 12:33 pmI did a thing! That I am legit proud of!
I wanted our spiritual exploration group to do a workshop on spiritual chanting, so back in September I promised to talk to the women who lead the chanting at the BYM women's retreat. I couldn't find their names, but at the retreat one of them was really excited and said that yes, she absolutely wanted to do it. She gave me her email address.
I emailed and never heard back. I figure it got lost in the email ether somewhere, but it left me at loose ends. Last month someone said "well, could you lead the retreat?" and I am not particularly fast on my feet when taken off guard, so I said "I guess so?"
But, uh, singing. Alone, in public, to teach and then lead people in chant. This is really really hard for me. The only reason I can manage singing with the Singing Quaker Women is because there are 2-3 other people singing second alto. (I may be the only second alto at a wedding at the end of the month and I am already panicking.) So I decided that I would use my laptop and play recordings of the BYM chanting and of the chanting workshop I did last year at FGC.
Last night, I set up my laptop and Sir Now Appearing's speakers and got everything working. But when I went to play the first chant, of course the speakers had decided not to work. But it was okay! I led about 20 chants, and my voice only wobbled once, and after we were done we were all so peaced out nobody really wanted to leave so we just stayed in a circle and talked about spiritual paths out of the silence. It was really lovely.
So, go me! Conquered a fear, pulled off a workshop, and had a wonderful and meaningful evening.
I wanted our spiritual exploration group to do a workshop on spiritual chanting, so back in September I promised to talk to the women who lead the chanting at the BYM women's retreat. I couldn't find their names, but at the retreat one of them was really excited and said that yes, she absolutely wanted to do it. She gave me her email address.
I emailed and never heard back. I figure it got lost in the email ether somewhere, but it left me at loose ends. Last month someone said "well, could you lead the retreat?" and I am not particularly fast on my feet when taken off guard, so I said "I guess so?"
But, uh, singing. Alone, in public, to teach and then lead people in chant. This is really really hard for me. The only reason I can manage singing with the Singing Quaker Women is because there are 2-3 other people singing second alto. (I may be the only second alto at a wedding at the end of the month and I am already panicking.) So I decided that I would use my laptop and play recordings of the BYM chanting and of the chanting workshop I did last year at FGC.
Last night, I set up my laptop and Sir Now Appearing's speakers and got everything working. But when I went to play the first chant, of course the speakers had decided not to work. But it was okay! I led about 20 chants, and my voice only wobbled once, and after we were done we were all so peaced out nobody really wanted to leave so we just stayed in a circle and talked about spiritual paths out of the silence. It was really lovely.
So, go me! Conquered a fear, pulled off a workshop, and had a wonderful and meaningful evening.