My latest achievement — a crocheted shawl for my friend, Elizabeth.  I got the pattern at the knitting bee in bethany. Here’s a similar free pattern from my new favorite site, Ravelry.com, which is full of free patterns for crochet.  I used a noro silk/kid mohair/wool/nylon blend.

Since I am having a nice Jupiter aspect, I thought I would share it and for each shell, I did a lengthy Jupiter mantra taught to me by Susan Holmstrom, a devotee of Kriyananda. Supposedly, doing 1000 will bring great expansion — yippee!

Christopher Rauschenberg, a lovely man who shows his amazing photos at the Elizabeth Leach gallery this month, visited recently.  He and his sweet wife, Janet, agreed to help us place a piece he donated to the PNCA auction last month.  The piece is untitled and was created by his father, Robert Rauschenberg.

Christopher and his camera are pretty much inseparable, so he took several pictures at the house.  His favorite venue is a child’s bedroom, because they have such interesting stuff and non sequitors for arrangements.  He took some sweet shots in their rooms as well as two amazing photos at sunset where the trees were turned orange by the light.  I have never been able to capture that light, so was really impressed!  Christopher is allowing me to publish these photos.

Podcast of Linda Brice discussing her path

Podcast of Linda Brice discussing the 4 pillars of singing training

Linda Brice, creator of transformational voice training; voice instructor to opera stars like Nicole Cabell; and actualized woman, spoke with me recently about her path and her mission of healing.

Brice, who has spent her career singing and training singers, comes from a classical and intellectual background.  Life events and a desire to know Source have led her to looking at her work as a way to help others confront, befriend and eliminate fear from their performance efforts.  Looking at fear as the primary thing that stands between a singer and their connection, not just to God, but to a positive performing experience, Brice helps students understand that their art is “being prayerful and creativity is being godly.” She teaches singers to “breathe in Source and exhale God.”

Brice clearly understands that professional singers are seen as a commodity by the recording industry that hopes to make money by using them.  She reminds singers that they are chosen by god and that they are part of a priesthood here to serve god and change the world through their singing.

Brice’s own journey toward understanding Source shifted by reading Matthew Fox and sharing a workshop with Julie Cameron, who later became her student. When she saw her role as a servant of God, her connection to the ideal of “singer as Medicine Man” manifested in a process she calls transformational voice training. She understood that tension destroys the beauty of the human sound and set out to help singers eliminate tension and use singing as their meditation and devotion to Source.

Brice hopes to evolve a transformational voice institute to share the teachings with other teachers, who can help their students.