Monday, August 31 marks my last official day as Artistic Director at an organization I co-founded with good friends exactly five years ago. The organization, Cathedral Park Performing Arts Collective, lives on, but my season in leadership there has come to a close. This is also the first fall in 28 years that I have not been preparing to enter school as a student or a teacher. I feel strangely at peace, afloat — hopeful and ready to step into my next chapter.

This summer, I enrolled in the Vibrant Body/Wise Mind with Lael Petersen, which teaches the 10 daily habits of Ayurveda. In learning the habits—which are already changing my life, by the way—I’ve also started to go deeper into my own dharma, or purpose. Central to Ayurveda is the theme of cycles and seasons, or rhythm. This has guided me to take a closer look at my daily rhythm, the seasons of each year, and even the seasons of my own life. What I have realized is, up until now, my relationship with rhythm has been a bit, mm...off-kilter — so offbeat that you couldn’t honestly even call it syncopation. I’ve spent such a significant amount of time getting caught up in the subdivision of every little beat along the way that I’ve been completely missing the music. In non-music speak: I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Sound familiar?

This month in our group meditations, we talked a lot about balance, nurturing through self-compassion, and choosing between effort and ease. We looked at the rhythm that comes with finding balance in polar opposites: effort/ease, rise/fall, empty/full, inhale/exhale, joy/pain. We saw that, much like the breath, the rhythm of these is not dichotomous, rather, it’s a cycle. There is space between the inhale and the exhale, between the emptying of ourselves and the refilling. That space is important. That moment of pause before the cycle begins again is necessary.

I am taking these next few weeks to pause. I am allowing the dust of the past several years to settle so my vision can be clearer. There is something beautiful on the other side, I can feel it. I can make out its form, but the details are hazy. So, I am taking this time to be silent and listen. I will still be here for guided meditations, our September Soul Sing, and 1:1 lessons, but my online presence may be more quiet than usual. This is the perfect time to connect with others around you, including those in our Love Your Voice online community on Facebook. There is so much we can learn from each other, and I hope you will take advantage of this resource.

As we enter into a new school year with its own new challenges, and as we move through this political season and the collective pain of violence and upheaval surrounding years and years of racial injustice, I invite us all to look for opportunities to nurture ourselves. Take care of your own body, mind, and spirit so you can be fully present for those with whom you share this one precious life. Take time to breathe, to sing, to restore. And I will do the same.

Love,

Audrey

P.S. I am looking to connect with 5-6 women who want to deepen their knowledge and love of their voice over the next 3-6 months (and beyond!). My passion and skill rest in a holistic approach to singing, in which we look at your deeper why, explore how to fully embrace new desired habits, and shift your mindset to update outdated beliefs about yourself and your voice. If you’re ready to stand up more fully in your voice and in your life, let’s talk.

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