Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do it. Because what the world needs is people who come alive.
I read this quote by Howard Thurman when I was in the process of making this CD. It resonated ever so deeply as I had felt a vital part of me coming to life: the child within who could enjoy playing, taking all as it comes, enjoying every action without anticipating the fruit. Every step of the way was a reminder that ‘it’s ok to be me’, it’s ok to live life in accordance to what feels right inside. In the process of my recordings I realised even more clearly how some of us (including me), somewhere along the line, lose our own compass – that part of us which knows what we truly want from life but doubt to live it.
I had never set out to narrate poetry and record it. The thought only crossed my mind after a dance workshop when a couple of students came to tell me how much they liked what they heard of the last track I’d played. It was someone narrating parts of Khalil Gibran’s poem on Love. What was slightly disappointing for them was the fact that the music was loud and the words weren’t clear. This is how I came to record my first narration to replace this track on my playlist, in the hope that it will be clearer for my next workshop.
I was not surprised at the joy this little task brought me. Although it was totally different from anything I’d ever thought I’d do, there was a sense of familiarity and total harmony with myself. I was reminded that even as a teenager, my favourite pastime was to read poems that had moved me and share them with friends who came round. I took it a bit further by creating videos and images to go with the words and admittedly when I loaded the first video on Youtube, I felt I was facing the world as myself, with no mask, for the first time. I was excited, thrilled, petrified and very happy at the same time, no doubt that I WAS ALIVE!!
With the encouragement of many of you and everyone who watched those videos came the birth of this project. When I was recording, as I read and reread the poems, I felt myself tuning in to the pulse of life and felt my soul dancing; for that I am ever so grateful. This is the power of poems that have sprouted from the heart of life itself. They strike a note in the heart of the listener till music starts dancing the soul. Kahlil Gibran’s words are powerful as they come from an honest heart and an inquisitive mind. As you read or hear his words, you recognise that he was a man truly involved and fascinated with life and it is my hope that his passion will strike a chord in your heart and you’ll remember that
The best way to act in the play of Life is as the real, authentic YOU!
