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Summer Inspirations Part 5

My Summer Playlist! So, a bit of a confession here– every summer I eagerly await Barack Obama’s Summer Playlist and Reading List—Somehow, I get pretty excited when I see some overlap (“Hey, I love that book/song too!” I am a bit of a fan of these kinds of lists in general because I am alwaysContinue reading “Summer Inspirations Part 5”

Summer Inspirations Part 4: Debbie Millman’s “The Remarkable Life Deck”

Goal setting has long been a practice that I have used in my creative and academic careers as well as my personal life—I have big goals, little goals and all sorts in between. I write them down, I revise them regularly and I break them down into actionable tasks, (Thanks to skills I learned inContinue reading “Summer Inspirations Part 4: Debbie Millman’s “The Remarkable Life Deck””

Summer Inspirations Part 3

Yoga Practice Elevation In the spirit of my Summer Inspiration “series,” I am reflecting on my yoga journey and how it inspires and supports me as an artist (particularly a voice-centric artist), an academic and just a regular ol’ human. Above is a photo of me practicing yoga on the beach… Just kidding, it’s freakin’Continue reading “Summer Inspirations Part 3”

Summer Inspiration Part 2: Walking

I am including my morning walks in my little series on summer inspirations even though my morning walks are not necessarily specific to the summer– I am pretty dedicated to them all year round—however, I love my summer walks best of all and am definitely most inspired by them– not only because I don’t haveContinue reading “Summer Inspiration Part 2: Walking”

Summer is for Exploring

At the end of the Winter semester, I often have students ask me what they can be doing over the summer to keep their artistic practice growing and moving forward and besides the obvious advice to try and keep their vocal and physical practices consistent, I always encourage folks to get out and see/experience as much asContinue reading “Summer is for Exploring”

How We Spend Our Days

“How we, spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” ~Annie Dillard, The Writing Life I think about this quote all. the. time. It makes sense to me in so many contexts. I share it with my students when emphasizing that what we are exploring in class are not just skills youContinue reading “How We Spend Our Days”

I love Birthdays (hold the parties)

I love not only that April Fools’ Day is my actual birthday but that it usually falls on or around Easter—because Lord knows, I love a good resurrection—(the whole rebirth, rise from the dead theme is right on brand for me) but then pair that with the whole day of foolishness theme? Give me aContinue reading “I love Birthdays (hold the parties)”

Never Too Late

I received these two postcards from my 93-year-old dad this week, one for St Patrick’s Day- on which he had written “Enjoy St Paddy Day Regards Dad”(sic) and the other for my birthday (that is still a little over a week away) reading “Have a Good Day Love-Dad”. Finding these in my mailbox was suchContinue reading “Never Too Late”

Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself…(but what if I think I am kinda okay?)

I am currently reading Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One by Dr. .Joe Dispenza, and as a dedicated meditator and someone who is pretty committed to working on my mindset (as well as an unabashed self-help book junkie), I have to say that I amContinue reading “Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself…(but what if I think I am kinda okay?)”

In Search of My Mother’s Garden

I am patiently planning a vegetable garden. I genuinely don’t know what I am doing, but the anticipation to get on with it is killing me- Having lived the past seven years in Quebec, you would think I would be used to long winters. Still, Eastern Canadian winters have nothing on a Prairie winter, andContinue reading “In Search of My Mother’s Garden”