“In fact, true reinvention happens on the inside more than on the outside.”
– Christine Kane

I had a lovely dinner and conversation with my friend A last night. She had been in Hawaii with Rhiannon two weeks before I went to Italy for the first week of All the Way In (the year-long vocal improv study course I’m taking).

What fun we had! We laughed with each other about how difficult it can be to integrate the experiences the weeks with Rhiannon can bring and how challenging it can be to effectively share what (exactly) happened. A said to me when someone asks her “How was Hawaii?,” she thinks to herself, Do you got an hour? Our “dinner” lasted three hours and we talked the entire time.

We shared some of the insights we had about ourselves and our groups, traded stories and names of singers (Oh yes! I know her!) and marveled at the power of the community Rhiannon is creating. How, we the singers who have studied with her, feel connected, not only to her, but to each other.

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Speaking of connections …

My new young singer friend Noemi (from Switzerland) sent this to the All the Way In singers this week. It sums up a lot of how the week in Italy felt.

In a Deep Connectedness:

“You see the smile

you feel the warmth

you sense the smell

and below, deep down

where empathy finds its roots

and the wave gets one

and source meets source

in that deep flow

we are connected

sometimes we see the light.”

– by Johannes Erhardt

When I went to study with Rhiannon in Hawaii four years ago, I had no idea the impact it would have on my life. I came back invigorated, yet dumbstruck by the intensity of the experience. (And within 8 months, I had quit my job to return to music school. Yeah, intense.)

…

Now, I’m not one to hang onto a lot of the emotional details of an event once it’s over. My family constantly bemoans the fact that if they don’t talk to me about a workshop, gig or event within a few hours of it ending, then they will never find out much about it.

In fact, we have a running joke based on a story from my Hawaii singing adventure. About 5 days into the week in Hawaii, we had an intense day focused around sound healing. Even in writing about it my trip journal, all I could say was:

“Big, big day — we sang, we cried …
And then there was chicken.”

…

(Keeping in mind it’s been several days since my return and the details are beginning to fade … *smile*)

Italy was … simply amazing.

So amazing I can hardly process it. I don’t even know how to begin to download the numerous experiences I had with the singers, the singing, the location, the meals, the cultural exchanges, the language (five — thank heavens, one of them was English!), etc.

…

We sang every day, played music games, swam in the pool.

I left a whole new singing family on the other side of the ocean. I am missing them terribly.

I am connected to my music and the world around me in a more concrete and more intense way.

And … um …

Then there was chicken. *smile*