Thinking About My Feet - Standing Up To Sing

And Stuff I’ve Been Into Lately

Photo by Alejandro Luengo on Unsplash

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my feet and about standing up. Although seldom heralded, our hard working feet get us from here to there and back again. Our feet are literally and metaphorically intimately connected to how we move through the world and how we affirm our connection to the earth with every step.

Note: Because I’ve know folks with mobility challenges, I know that walking and standing are not a given, please know that I hold the gift of standing with gratitude.

I remember when I decided it was time for me to stand up when singing. In the beginning, I was the long haired young woman singing from the corner, sitting on a barstool. Even in my first band, I sang from a sitting position. But then I decided to work with a vocal coach. Although I’d been singing for years, I was an untrained vocalist. I wanted to strengthen my voice, expand what it could do and maybe take care of better of it for the long haul. Engaging a vocal teacher felt risky. When I was a teenager, I auditioned for the high school choir, and didn’t make the cut. I hadn’t taken choir in Jr. High and I did not know how to sight read written music. I loved to sing and failing the audition felt deeply embarrassing. And yet, I kept singing and continued to train myself the best I could, singing along with the radio, copying sounds, nuances and intervals I heard on recordings.

In my experience, the things we love will ask us to take brave steps outside our safety zones. Courage has nothing to do with being fearless. Courage has everything to do with loving someone or something so much you’ll risk the scary parts. It was a great experience and my teacher gave lots of good advice, including encouragement to stand when singing. By standing to sing, I found I could breathe more deeply and support notes with greater ease and strength. It was a revelation musically, but it was also a revelation personally.

Stepping out from the barstool in the corner felt like claiming my own space, claiming my desire to share my voice and gifts and affirm my right to be fully in this world. It seems like such a simple thing, but for a young woman living in a culture that had issues (and continues to have issues) with strong women - it was an important moment in my own becoming. Growing up in the Midwest, as a nice midwestern woman, you pretty quickly hear all the pat phrases like, “Honey, no one likes a pushy woman” “Darling, you can catch more flies with honey,” and of course the worst kind of disapproving insult, “ Well, doesn’t she think something of herself”. Yes, as if a woman thinking she had worth or value was a bad thing.

Standing up to speak and sing without apology was a pretty big deal.

When I started to sing standing up, I also sensed where I was connected to the earth and how that strength could move through me. I was standing on my own two feet and it felt surer and more solid than perched on a precariously balanced barstool. I could sense my own strength. I could finally sing while taking long deep and sure breaths.

I loved it.

Not everyone loved it.

Not everyone likes it when a woman claims her value and speaks clearly. And yet, in this moment our country is stepping up to an important growing edge in how we think and speak about the importance, value and benefits of having women’s voices more present at the table of power as we navigate the challenges of our times. It is an exciting moment filled with possibility. It has been a long time coming.

Whenever a society steps up to a growing edge there will be push back. It is not surprising that particular politician with a long history of diminishing and dehumanizing whole groups of people, including women, is spewing out ugly out-dated ideas. But honestly, I rather not give a lot of airtime or mental real estate to a candidate who I find (although very dangerous) pitiable and devoid of any moral compass.

Instead, I’d like to affirm the commitment, courage and excitement I’m experiencing all over the country. Let us step up to the this next growing edge with confidence and joy. Let us celebrate where our feet meet the ground and claim our voices for a positive future. Let us stand up and sing for our deepest most beautiful shared values, for fairness, dignity, decency, environmental responsibility. Let us sing full throated and without apology.

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Practice

Do something that feels empowering this week. Be creative…it might be as simple as saying a prayer or extending a kindness. It may be creating some work of art. A heart felt conversation with a neighbor or friend. It may be writing postcards, phone banking or even baking cookies for the folks who are phone banking. It maybe forwarding this post to someone who might appreciate the encouragement to stand up and be counted. Every effort that is done in love matters.

Question

Do you have a story that inspires you when someone (maybe even yourself) stood up and claimed their own voice?

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This is a song called “Three Feet or So” based upon the idea that I can’t change the whole world, but I can change what is three feet around me. We have tremendous power in how we choose to life our daily lived…what we need is within us, between us and three feet around!

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Stuff I’ve Been Into Lately

Furious Flower Poetry Podcast -Allison Quantz, the editor/producer of The Growing Edge Podcast, has a new podcast project that focus on poetry! I really enjoyed the first episode and wanted to let you all know about the series. Here’s the podcast description “Let's just say it: these are tough times. What are we supposed to do with all these hard and complicated feelings? Turn to poetry, of course. Virginia Humanities and the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University have partnered to bring 10 of this year's Furious Flower Lifetime Achievement Award honorees in conversation with a new generation of Black poets. Listen as they talk about life, death, love, and baseball—and so much more in between.” Here’s the link

Vasen & Hawktail - A beautiful new album documenting a collaboration between two amazing groups. Here’s the Spotify link

Healing The Heart of Democracy: The Courage To Create A Politics Worthy Of The Human Spirit By Parker J. Palmer - I been re-reading this timely insightful book on holding the complexities of democracy in these challenging times. It was just re-issued with a new forward by Parker. Here’s the link

The Pocket Guide for Facing Down a Civil War: Surprising ideas from everyday people who shifted the cycles of violence - This small little booklet by John Paul Lederach has really captured my imagination. John Paul will be our guest for our October The Growing Edge Podcast! Here’s the link.

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis - Ok, with so much seriousness in our lives during this election season, I picked up a book that was pretty much light-hearted science fantasy, with a funny love story and a happy ending. Link

Letters From An American by Heather Cox Richardson - This is Substack author I read regularly. She’s a historian who has very insightful commentary on current events. Link

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Upcoming Concerts & Retreats This Season

For tickets and more information about shows visit my website tour page at www.carrienewcomer.com/tour

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On A National Level - Get Out The Vote

This past week I’ll be sang at an online information event with Movement Voter Project, which is mobilizing get out the vote efforts across the country and especially in battleground states. It also supports year-long community engagement and grassroots organizing on local, state and national issues. I hope you’ll check out their website.

On Local Levels

Don’t forget to check in with your local league of women voters or the local office for the Democratic Party. There is always something to do!

I’ve been attending some of the Rural Summit events in South Central Indiana this week for Michelle Higgs (district 60) and Thomas Horrocks (district 62). Both candidates are intelligent, informed, passionate, spiritual, dedicated hardworking, people with great ideas for our state.. Check out their websites if you are in their districts. Since we are not in battleground states, most local candidates operate on a shoestring. So if you want to support grassroots community action and candidates and public servants who know and love their communities and districts –check out their websites, their platforms and values, as well as the expertise and experience they bring. And if you have a bit of leeway in your budget this month, consider even a small gift to a grassroots candidate, ever dollar is greatly appreciated and USED wells