Moments D721: Penguins, Words, butterflies and believing

Tonight Arizona and I went to see Christina Perri at the Danforth Music Hall.  In a word:  WOW.  

Christina had BIRDY open the show.  I've never heard of this beautiful songstress before.  Incredible.  I'll definitely be hunting down some of her songs tomorrow.  Tonight, I want to write about the soul inspiring Christina Perri.  She brought me to tears.  Not once, not twice, but thrice in the near 2 hours she was on stage.

What an amazing big voice.  What an incredible presence you could feel her pain in the words she belted out.  You could feel the joy and the love and the fear.  It was a beautiful set of songs and in just under a week of having her latest album "Head or Heart", I've already fallen in love with a couple of her new songs.

The first song that brought me to tears was her new song "The Words".  It's a song about new love about being raw, and real, and going deeper.  Why the tears?  I remember that moment.  That moment where I realized I was deep, deep in love.  It was raw, and real, and scary.  "The scariest part is letting go."   So very true.  Letting go, trusting.  Believing.  Believing you deserve love.  Believing you can give love.  Trusting that this time, this time you won't fail at the rest of the puzzle because as beautiful as love can be, it's only a piece of the bigger puzzle of a healthy, functioning relationship.  And it's scary to let go and dive in.

Near the end of the concert, Christina sang "I believe",  also from her new album.  Again, the tears came, for who hasn't felt the pain of losing themselves?  I know I have.  A few times.  (Um, you did read the paragraph preceding this one....right?)   She dedicated this song to the audience.  Noted that there were surely those of us in the crowd that may not have been having the best of days, or weeks, that she was going to fill the room up with love and surround us with it.

Eerily familiar.  And I found myself taking a step back and really absorbing the energy of the crowd and sending out to BFF (she's sick!), Heini (for obvious reasons) and to EQ (because I love him!) - redirecting all that beautiful energy.  

The emotion of her words are raw, add in how passionately she plays the piano and voilà:  magic. A snippet of her lyrics:

‘Cause I have been where you are before
And I have felt the pain of losing who you are
And I have died so many times, but I am still alive

This is not the end of me, this is the beginning
(Hold on)
This is not the end of me, this is the beginning

And then she had the audience join in chorus.  Much like this live version on Youtube.  How incredibly powerful.  Arizona and I were in section A.  Our task was to sing "This is not the end of me, this is the beginning."  Very apropos given the journey I've had over the past two years.  The audience at the Danforth Music Hall great and much more into it than the video online.....we actually sang the band off the stage and kept it going for quite a few repeats.  It was such a beautiful moment....tears rolling down my face and all.

During the encore, she played one of my favourite songs from her first album.  "Penguin"  It's more a cute fun song about soul mates.  It's always choked me up.

It was a beautiful set of songs, performed by an extremely talented young lady.

Moments just feeling the music and lyrics.

Moments soaking in all that beautiful, loving energy and sharing it out again to those in need.

Moments D698: Helium Songs

This evening EQ & I spent the evening with Archie and Comic Guy.  It was a joint birthday celebration, so EQ and I showed up with birthday goodies!

An 11 year old Cabernet Merlot.

A birthday bag of odd gifts for the birthday boy:  Some tattoos (I wonder where they ended up!), a couple of random dollar store games and two bottles of the Walter caesar mix (mild & spicy).  What can I say, he and I are huge caesar fans and I when I saw the mix, I couldn't resist picking him up a couple of bottles of try it out!  (Amusingly, when we arrived he made us caesars....mixed with the new Walter caesar mix.  I had a fit of giggles when I realized!)

Specialty chocolates all the way from New York.

AND a bunch of helium balloons.

And this is where today's moment was born.

On the way over to Archie & Comic Guy's house, EQ commented that it would be fun to inhale the helium later on in the evening.  I teasingly reprimanded him - these weren't his balloons, they were for the birthday boy!  Besides, wasn't that something that kids do?

Fast forward to post dinner.  We are all sitting around enjoying our conversation and Archie walks over to two pairs of scissors:  one for me and one for EQ.  I look at him quizzically.  What on earth?  With a devilish smile, Archie explains that we're going to inhale the helium.

As you can imagine, I rolled my eyes as EQ burst into laughter.  After being asked "when did you get old"?, we all had a balloon in hand ready to inhale, sing and repeat around the room.

I can't lie.  It was funny.  It was hilarious in fact. EQ even caught some of it on video.

So much for being mature, but it sure did feel good to play along.

SHAZAM!

Moments enjoying your friends and being silly.

Moments understanding you don't always have to be proper.

Moments D690: Dance, dance, dance!

Today the entire crew visiting Jamaica for my cousin's wedding joined in on a full day adventure with Chukka Tours.  The day started out with a rain storm.  It was fun to watch the storm cloud roll in, let loose upon us at breakfast and then pass through just as quickly as it came in.  We were thankful for the quick storm as we had all signed up for their catamaran cruise headed to Dunn's River to climb the falls.   There were over 20 of us.  It needed to be a good weather day and the universe was in agreement!

What a treat to enjoy a day with everyone.  It was a day filled with great moments, and today, I'm going to share a couple of them.  First, we cruised along and stopped for a snorkel.

After our snorkeling time (which was definitely dampened by the rain storm - the reef wasn't very clear!), we headed to Dunn's River Falls.

Walking up the falls wasn't much fun with the group as the tour guides originally had us all hand in hand, in hand, like a trail of kids.  It was like being on lock down when a world of excitement was just in front of you, teasing you for more action.  It didn't take long for EQ & I to split from the group and climb up the falls on our own terms.  What a treat that was.  What a ton of fun it was to play in the falls.

But truly, the best moment of the day was after lunch and on the boat ride back to the resort.  With rum punch in hand, we all rode the waves and sang and danced....and danced some more.  We all did!  All 20+ of us on the front of the catamaran.  With screams of fear (for some of our group fear motion like that!) mixed with screams of laughter we danced the afternoon away.

When we landed back at the resort, we continued to dance, sing, and laugh.  We managed to even catch some, actually a lot, of it on video!  How incredible to spend the day bonding with my family (and extended friends) and to be an adventurer with EQ.  

It was a day filled with dancing; dancing in the waves of the ocean, dancing in the river splashing up the falls and then dancing atop the catamaran.  Dance, dance dance!

Moments enjoying a day trip with the family.

Moments being extremely silly and loving life!

Moments D485: Beyond the Boundaries

Before I share my day's moment, I want to share an interesting coincidence (?) with you.  I find it interesting that today's blog is entry 555.  Interesting because it is a repeated number and because fives are all about being energetic, daring, social, and courageous.  That's pretty fitting because today's moment is finding courage - I stepped pretty far outside my boundaries today.

Digging a little deeper, when you adding the all the numbers together, it becomes a 6, a harmonious, loving, caring number.  Also pretty fitting given that the boundary pushed was for celebrating a birthday of a loved one.  A birthday age that, oddly, also adds up to a 6!  (The things we do to push beyond for those we love!!)

Now, this doesn't mean I believe in the numerological significance of 555, but it's hard to miss the connected dots!

So back to my moment.  Today's moment is one sharing a project that I've been working on for over a month.  It was a birthday present like none other that I've ever considered creating before.  Let me explain.

I love to sing.  That being said, I do not love to share my singing with the world.  Why?  Well, it's not my forte, and it makes me DAMN uncomfortable.  Ya ya, for those who know me, you know I've done some Karaoke with friends, in a room and I've played Rock Band in my home.   What you might not know is that, once upon a time, I have also stood in front of a small audience at my high school graduation and in front of some drunk university students at battle of the bands competition and sang a tune (or three) to them.  Very nerve wracking and uncomfortable.

And yet, for this project, for this unique birthday present, I decided to sing a couple of songs and record them.  The catch?  The receiver has worked in the music industry.  Done very well in the music industry. What the hell was I thinking?  Talk about amping up the worry-factor!  That being said, I knew, no matter what the quality (goodly or badly), the gift would be well received.  Even now, as I share this moment, I am surprised that I found the courage to go through with it, but I knew, deep down I knew just how meaningful this present would be.  That being said, being who I am, I still wanted perfection.

Laughable!  Not with the "equipment" I have, nor with and my "ability".  It simply wasn't going to happen. I did, however, pour a lot of love and energy into the two songs I sang, recorded and edited together. (Do I call these covers?  I suppose so, though it wasn't really like that, more like a karaoke rendition recorded.)  I knew they were heartfelt and meaningful songs.  The end result:  I knew that they were okay (maybe even a touch better than okay) and that the songs themselves would speak louder than any words or other gift that I could offer.

Regardless, when the time came to hit send, I was a nervous wreck!  And the horror of it?  I watched, via Skype as the songs were first played for the birthday boy.  (I was not expecting this, nor was I prepared for this!)  I must have passed through 10+ shades of red sitting there watching and listening.  And two words gave me confidence to watch and experience along with the birthday boy.  "Don't hide."

What an incredible moment it was to watch his face as he listened to the songs.  The emotions that crossed his beautiful face.  The sharing of "goosebumps and tears".  Success!  He felt the love and I pushed through my fear.  Brilliant!  A perfectly brilliant, high vibration moment.

Moments finding courage and pushing through.

Moments sharing love.

Moments D484: Convertible of Singing Kids

This morning as I put out my recycling and compost, I spied a very fun moment that made me smile and followed me through the day.  It reminds me that while we live in a world where the humdrum of life can pull us down, we have a choice to inject love and light into moments when and where we can.

As I was dropping off my refuse curbside, a convertible with a Dad and two very cute blond girls in the back seat slowed on the street to say hi to a contractor getting out of his truck.  Both of the girls were singing at the top of their lungs to tunes that Dad had blaring.  Huge smiles were upon the three arriving faces and the contractor quickly joined the ranks with a huge smile of his own.

Dad turned down the tunes as he said hello to the contractor.  The girls quickly followed suit in very bright, eager voices.  (If I had to guess, the contractor was their Uncle.)  They all had a couple of laughs and then Dad looked back at the girls and said that it was time to go because "...who's got to make money today?" And the girls chimed back, "...YOU do Daddy.  Time for work."  They all waved at that contractor and in a blink the tunes were blaring again and the girls were loudly singing along as the convertible drove off.

The scene brought a smile to me too.

And as I walked past the contractor I said to him, "...there is a happy bunch."  His reply, "Yes.  I love those kids.  Lots of fun."  And then we exchanged good day pleasantries and we went about our day.

Moments with strangers.

Moments realizing that we're not such strangers after all.

Moments D416: Rain, rain come along.....

Today I made up my own little song or rhyme. I was inspired as I was tagged to play in a late baseball game last night as a sub. After a busy, tiring week, I wasn’t sure I wanted to head out to play baseball at 9:30pm…..in a wet field.

So, instead of chanting away the rain, I made up a new chant.

It made me smile. It’s the moment I share today.

Rain, rain, come along

Let me sing my silly song

Rain, rain, com along

It didn’t work. I played ball. We won. I ran the bases four times. But it was fun to sign it all day long and to taunt our baseball coach that we’d be rained out. My punishment - it rained while we were playing. We all got wet! We laughed a little more. It was so much fun. I’m glad I went. I’m glad my chant against the rain didn’t work.

Funny how things work out sometimes!

Moments being silly.

Moments singing.

Moments 280: Singing Stewardess & Moon rise

Today was an incredible day. After a 2hr drive in torrential rains (yes in the middle of winter!) I was finally on vacation. As I drove through the spectacular rain storm, I really thought things experience would be my moment. After all it was beautiful and, at times, frightening.

But this wasn't the moment of the day.

On our flight from Buffalo to Baltimore, we made a new friend with the lady in the window seat. She was lovely, insightful and overall quite pleasant to chat with. I thought her stories might be the moment of the day. But I was wrong.

When we were preparing to leave Baltimore for Florida the unexpected happened. One of the stewardesses introduced a soon-to-be-married couple. After the introduction, she asked us to listen up as the soon-to-be-groom had something to share with us about his bride-to-be. Three next thing I knew. .. the stewardess began to sing From This Moment. What an incredible voice she had too! I was thoroughly impressed. It brought a tear to my eye and a warmth to my heart. First because this stewardess sang the whole sing and did so with such passion. Secondly, because of the groom's request to share his feelings with us. Beautiful.

Then shortly after we were in the air, we watched the moon rise. How incredibly spectacular. As we banked away from its grande finale, I paused and just made a note to myself about how fortunate I was to have been able to experience these two magical moments back-to-back.

Today was about unexpected moments. I loved them all, but these most of all.

Moments D277: DOCs & Soundgarden

Today was a slow start and not nearly as productive as I needed it to be (I’m sorry tomorrow, you are going to be a little more crammed now because of this!), but even so it was a good day and this evening ROCKED.

Literally!

My BFF and I went to see Soundgarden tonight at the Sound Academy. We were about to leave my place when she noted my footware and suggested that I go get my DOCs. Damn. I haven’t worn my DOCs in (ahem) over a decade. Hell, I thought to myself, why not. If not at a Soundgarden concert, when would I dust those maroon bad boys off? I smiled the entire time it took me to lace them up properly. The memories that flooded to me. Incredible really. I was 15 years younger all of a sudden!

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in the Sound Academy. It’s a smaller venue and it was crammed with people tonight! I swear it was a sea of six-foot-something guys for I barely saw the stage for the entire concert! No matter, though as the SOUND at this venue is amazing and Soundgarden did not disappoint. Chris Cornell sounds incredible live as do his band mates. Such an incredible concert. Bravo.

So today’s moment, enjoying a blast from the past. Both my fun, well-worn, well-loved DOCs and one of my favourite bands from decades ago.

Easy to dance and sing up a storm with these guys!

Moments D266: Singing and skipping Dad

Today was a very productive day.  A workout first thing, into work early,  a chiropractic/acupuncture appointment for lunch, then late to leave.  The productivity continued tonight with a homemade dinner and some homework.  A perfectly productive day.


But the most interesting moment today was watching a father walk his son & daughter to school.   The cute part was that he was singing and skipping with them and every third beat they did a little hop.   It was so much fun to watch while I was sitting in rush hour traffic.

Moments enjoying others enjoying themselves.

Moments to skip and sing.

Moments D208: Christmas Music

Today’s moment came about due to a letter I got in the mail on Friday. I haven’t had a chance to read it or go over the details until just today. It was from XM Radio. My trial period with the satellite radio will end early in January 2013. This saddens me as I have truly enjoyed their services, but at $15 a month, it seems a little silly to pay for music in the car when I’m rarely in the car. Sure I can add another $4 to my monthly bill and get XM radio on my phone and via internet. That might make it more valuable as I could then listen to it at work and at home. I’ve enjoyed the random smattering of new music outside of my comfort zone and this will be a loss in my musical world. Thought provoking indeed, but not the point of this post. So while I lean towards letting the subscription lag, I am, today, enjoying two of their latest stations.

Once upon a time I used to really love Christmas. The carols, the decorations and most importantly (for me), spending good quality time with my family and friends. Over the years that excitement has waned. I can’t really explain it. I suppose part of it was that my ex wasn’t very excited about Christmas and it was always so much energy to get him involved with it. The other part? I’m never home for Christmas. It’s easy for me to travel to others. I’m the odd duck out. So it’s hard to get excited to set up decorations when I won’t be home to see them. Add school into the mix (and final exams a week before Christmas) and Christmas has lost its lustre.

And yet, today while flipping through the XM radio stations to see what else I’d miss out on should I not sign up, I found not one, but TWO Christmas Music stations. I can’t tell a lie. It wasn’t long before I was singing along with Bing and Frank and Nat and SMILING. It was a flicker of a spark. Could it be that the Christmas spirit is alive within? Perhaps it will catch and alight in flame. Something stirs within to pull out the decorations and lights. Maybe it’s time to revisit a past love.

Moments to revisit & re-evaluate.

Moments with music.

Moments D93: Mom's Wish

Today it was calling for major thunderstorms to start early in the evening to last throughout the evening. Now, as much as I love storms, I had a baseball game at 6:45pm. My dear Mom knew this and about 5:30pm yesterday, just before I was to head out from work she sent me an instant message that simply said: ”No rain tonight”. We had a brief exchange and I was on my way to the field.

Amazingly the ominous storm clouds held their bounty. We played our full game and then the team went back to the sponsoring bar for food, drinks and great conversation. We sat on the patio. Again, the clouds held off their release. We were then charmed by a duet of live music. It wasn’t long before most of the team was singing alone.

So thanks Mom for whispering the words to the universe for me - for us. It was a great night of baseball, friends & fun.

Moments from Mom.