Author Archive

The daffodils are up!!!  Spring has sprung in Oregon and I couldn’t be more excited to see all this color.  In a matter of 48 hours, trees went from completely barren to bursting with pink blossoms.  So far, the azaleas, camellias, crocus, daffodils, and hyacinths have all returned.  Pretty soon we’ll be loaded down with lilacs.  I guess winter is really over.   Having grown up in Southern California where there really is only one season – hot, dry and smoggy – getting used to watching the seasons come and go is truly an amazing experience I will try never to take for granted.  Today I wish you blossoms!!

My pastor is one of my heros. John Stumbo from Salem Alliance Church is a man in his 40s who runs marathons for “fun.” (Okay, well that’s a special kind of sickness! HA!!) John has recently survived 77 days in the hospital due to a mystery illness that even 100 different diagnostic tests has been unable to fully identify. John came within a hair’s breadth of death on several occasions, but is now back at home beginning a very long recovery process. John is in intense therapy relearning how to do everything including swallowing and speaking. One of the losses this illness has cost John is his ability to speak and sing with ease. He says he never realized how much of his identity is tied to his voice – how he speaks, preaches, sings, laughes, whispers, etc. I had never even considered that our voices are so deeply embedded in who we are. And for singers even more so. John loves to sing and says his inability to do anything but croak out a few notes is embarrassing to him.  He says, however, that God does not evaluate our praise on the quality of the voice but on the condition of the heart.   What a valuable lesson to remember.

Had to share this little tidbit of information I just heard.  Apparently, way back in the early days of train travel, a train track was built high up in the Alps that connected the cities of Vienna and Venice.  However, the track was completed BEFORE it was known if a locomotive even capable of making the trip could be invented.  Now THAT is hope!

In a recent magazine about music, I stumbled upon a quote that took me completely by surprise.  I don’t know to whom the quote should be attributed, but rather than moaning in agreement, it made me laugh out loud.   I have no clue why this little quote touches my giggle center the way it does, but I still laugh out loud every time I read it. 

“It’s the heart of being an ‘artist.’  When skies are blue, they are really blue;  and when they are gray . . . well, Van Gogh cut off his own ear.”

Maybe it’s a reminder that my skies are never really as gray as I might imagine, ’cause, well, both of my ears are still intact.

In cleaning out and rearranging things in my desk, I came across some notes I had taken a few years ago while listening to one of my vocal lesson tapes.  During my lesson, Maestro explained how singing opera is much more athletic than most people realize.  In addition, I remember him telling me that muscle strength is very necessary, but muscle coordination is as or more important than actual strength.  He explained that our muscle fibers have memory and that memory only lasts about 72 hours.  After 72 hours, they very slowly begin to forget what we’ve worked into their memory.  Well, that goes a long way to explain why I need much more time than I expect to vocally prepare for a performance after an extended interval of vocal rest.  Oh, ”extended interval of vocal rest” actually means that I’d rather watch TV than go stand at the keyboard and sing scales for 45 minutes.  Summer vacation’s over and it’s time to get back to work.

Hi, everyone!  I received an email from a friend who shared a poignant experience I feel compelled to share with y’all.  (My mother was Southern – live with it.)  To put it in a nutshell, while on vacation my friend sprained his already injured toe on the bedframe and spent days in pain.  Returning to his office after vacation, he was inundated with stacks of work and all kinds of fires to put out.  Under stress, he gave in to the lies about his worth, his failures, etc. we all hear from the enemy when we are most vulnerable.  While rehearsing those lies in his head, this is what he heard the Lord tell him.

“Son, you have been preoccupied with your injured toe for some time now.  Your little toe, which is concealed in a pair of socks and then hidden in a shoe, is invisible to you and everyone around you.  It may feel as if it is an insignificant part of your body, but in fact, one of it’s responsibilities is to balance your whole body as you walk.  And now that it is hurting, your whole attention is focused on it.  In the same manner, child, you are part of My Body and when you hurt I am preoccupied with you!” 

Far too often I forget how deeply aware of and how intimately concerned is God with  my “invisible” hurts.  If you are hurting today, even with something others might consider insignificant, remember that God is preoccupied with your pain and He is there for you to lean on as you regain your balance.

Well, here I go.  I’m blogging.  If you had asked me two weeks ago what blogging was I probably would have said that it sounds like a new Olympic sport requiring hip-boots with which to compete.  But I’ve been electronically educated and now I am a blogger! 

Lauralee and I are really happy to have entered into an agreement with the booking agency, Associates & Savidge.  Christians in the Theater Arts (CITA) invited us to present our Laundry and Tosca ministry event for their west-coast convention last month.  Our agent also happens to be the executive director of CITA, saw the program that night, and essentially offered to represent us right there on the spot.  How seriously cool!  (Okay, I have to stop saying “cool.”  I sound like I’m 12.)