GSC&W Growing Singing Childless & Whole BLOG

For some reason I particularly enjoyed last night and this morning. Maybe I would always say that if I’m honest!

There were maybe going to be 3 visitors and it was lovely to see Yvonne on Monday morning. Others didn’t make it this time but I always think “this is the perfect number for today!” and we all know in our unique journeys through life that any version of it that includes as much self-kindness as we can muster is just right as it is! So we’ll look forward to welcoming others if it becomes the right time for them to enjoy a bit of singing in a group like this.

Remember that we have two more sessions this month and then (again!) I am taking a break and hoping to get away in my campervan. When we restart in late October the sessions will be weekly and not have all these breaks in between! That will feel good to me too.

Here’s a summary of the session with some reminders of words – and sometimes the melodies and harmonies below. What we did varies slightly from Sunday night to Monday morning because we ended up starting a bit later on Monday so this is really a summary of Sunday’s session.

We started with the gorgeous, simple The Little Things in Life and then learnt a new song – the Sunflower Round by Penny Stone – and added to Sow Seeds of Hope and (on Sunday) to This Is Home. We also sang through The Wisdom of Trees.

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Sunflower Round by Penny Stone

Simple gorgeous little 4 part round. I think it sounds best in 2 or 3 parts but you can fit in 4 as Penny’s done on the recording below.

Sunflower so tall
You tower over all the other flowers

Here’s a link to a lovely YouTube of Penny teaching and then singing it with pictures of her 2021 crop of sunflowers and how tall they are!

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Sow Seeds of Hope by Penny Stone

We’ll learn the last, lower, part over following weeks. For now we’ve just done the middling part which is the main tune and the upper part. Once we’ve done all three parts I’ll sort out a video reminder.

Sow seeds of hope wherever you go
Though some may fall on the thorny ground
Sow seeds of hope wherever you go
Some of the seed's bound to grow taller than you ever could know

Middle and lower part words:
Sow seeds of hope (long!)
Wherever you go
Sow seeds of hope (short!)
Some of the seed's bound to grow taller than you ever could know

Once again it was really lovely to see anyone who could come and we missed you! if you couldn’t come. It was lovely to have Claire visit on Sunday evening and be able to welcome her into this particular circle.

Remember that we have two weeks off coming up so the next sessions will be on 15th and 16th August.

Here’s a summary of the session with some reminders. What we did varies slightly from Sunday night to Monday morning because we ended up starting a bit later on Monday so this is really a summary of Sunday’s session.

Once again we did a sitting version of preparing to sing. As a warm up song we used Be Still and Know – such a lovely reminder of something any of us forget at times.

During the session we had time for reminder sings of Simply There and The Wisdom of Trees and the gorgeous We Hold You In Our Circle (which I particularly like doing when we are welcoming new visitors to the group).

Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle

Be still and know that day and night
Be still and know that dark and light
Are one
Holy circle


Here’s a link to my teaching video of Be Still and Know

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Here’s a link to a reminder video of Simply There

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

Sow Seeds of Hope by Penny Stone

We’ll learn the other parts of this over following weeks. For now we’ve just done the middling part which is the main tune.

Sow seeds of hope wherever you go
Though some may fall on the thorny ground
Sow seeds of hope wherever you go
Some of the seed's bound to grow taller than you ever could know

Lovely sessions on both Sunday evening and Monday morning. Thank you for joining me. Just know you’re missed if you’re not there and we assume you’re taking care of yourself in some other way.

Here’s a summary of the session with some reminders.

We had an exchange of “top tips” for self care when you know you’re not on top form – some lovely ideas – I can’t remember them all but they included: stop writing lists (they’re kind of oppressive), look up Pema Chodron (a Tibetan nun who is wise and funny and lovely to listen to), meditation (lots of people find that helpful), move about – dance in the kitchen, get outdoors – just move about (even just a few minutes could help), STOP altogether – for as long as you need – turn off the phone, order in food – STOP completely, wear something that you know indicates to you that you’re well looked after because you love the way it looks. Lovely ideas! and I’m sure there were others.

We used a sitting warm up as it’s been so blooming hot that really just made sense! As warm up songs we used both Slow Down and The Little things in Life by Mary Denn.

We’ve now done all 3 parts of our newest song called Simply There. There’s a little video below reminding you of all the parts separately and all together.

We had fun just singing through The Wisdom of Trees with no reminders whatsoever.

For the first time in a long time we went back to This Is Home by Sophia Ephthimiou. We’ll have a go at some of the other parts of this over the next sessions. It’s really lovely to know a few parts.

In a very quick and scrappy fashion at the end we took a listen/learn of one of the echo parts of You’ve Gotta Start Somewhere. We’ll go back to this too over the coming sessions.

Slow Down (by Clare Elleray) – a really quick warm up song to remind me of a mantra of my own

Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing
Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing (then rises up a note to sing again)

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Here’s a link to a reminder video of Simply There

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

This Is Home by Sophia Ephthimiou

This is home where I belong
In this breath, in this heart
This is home where I belong
In this voice, in this song

You Gotta Start Somewhere by Penny Stone

Here’s a link to Penny’s fab video teaching all the parts of that one. To listen just to the song in all its parts you’ll need to fast forward to 8 mins 26 seconds.

Lovely sessions on both Sunday evening and Monday morning. For a moment I thought no one was coming on Monday morning and then was so delighted to find a group gathering bit by bit! Thank you for joining me. I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did. Thank you for all your lovely enthusiasm.

I suppose there are bound to be lower numbers over the summer and, as I explained, I’ve completely taken my eye off the ball as far as telling people outside of the group that it exists! so I really can’t be too surprised that it’s not growing much just at the moment. Now that I’m feeling so much better in myself and my Mum is safe and well I shall shift into gentle forms of encouraging other women to join us. Obviously it doesn’t suit everyone (nothing ever does) and, as we’ve all found, it can just be such an uplift to do a bit of singing and connecting so it would be wonderful to have some other women join us.

I’m not now at home (am visiting my Mum again in Gloucestershire about 4 hours from home) so I won’t be adding any new videos to the details below today but here’s a summary of what we sang and a few video reminders where possible.

As a warm up we used The Little things in Life by Mary Denn with its 3 parts (well, the low one is a bit tooooo low so we just revised the middle and upper). And we also used Ain’t Got No Worries (I love the reminder in there that “We’ll see this through” – whatever it is that “this” is for you just now). We’ve now done 2 parts of a new song called Simply There. Lastly we went back to The Wisdom of Trees which is a bit of a favourite for the moment. Actually on Sunday night we also had time for a little reminder of both Be Still and Know and You’ve Gotta Start Somewhere (I’m needing that reminder with the telling other people about the group on my mind!).

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Ain’t Got No Worries by Victoria Hopkins

Ain't got no worries when I'm with you
Ain't got no worries we'll see this through
We'll leave all our cares at the door when we sing
We'll stand up and smile and forget everything
Ain't got no worries when I'm with you

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle

Be still and know that day and night
Be still and know that dark and light
Are one
Holy circle

Here’s a link to my teaching video of Be Still and Know

You Gotta Start Somewhere by Penny Stone

Here’s a link to Penny’s fab video teaching all the parts of that one. To listen just to the song in all its parts you’ll need to fast forward to 8 mins 26 seconds.

Lovely sessions as ever!

Maybe there’s something about the light evenings and summer activities that means there are fewer of us at some of the sessions. I want you to know that it’s just fine as it is and the exact right number of people turn up to each one! Thank you so much for being there last night and this morning and sorry if you weren’t able to be, but we’re always going to assume you are doing what you need to when you’re not there.

In the “hearing each other’s spoken voices” moment we had a think about what it means to us (uniquely) to “embrace our childlessness”. I’d thought of that idea earlier on Sunday and wanted to hear other people’s reactions – which were super varied of course. From ideas about embracing the life you’re in, to embracing yourself as opposed to your childlessness itself, to embracing childlessness sounding way too ambitious and various permutations in between and around those ideas.

Even if the question didn’t resonate with you I loved sharing our thoughts on it and hearing your voices.

As a warm up we did some sirening sliding up and up exercises and used Slow Down (by me), then used The Little things in Life by Mary Denn and added its other two parts on the recording. We moved on to reminding ourselves of We Hold You In Our Circle by Emily Roblyn (just because we can!) and started to learn a new song called Simply There by a Cornish Choir run by Pip Wright. Lastly we went back to The Wisdom of Trees which is a bit of a favourite for the moment.

I’ve done a little video reminder of the Wisdom of Trees for you just now. Do let me know if these video reminders are helpful.

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them at all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing. Here’s a link to my little reminder video of the song with all the parts.

The Wisdom of Trees video.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one

Simply There by Jenny Goy (lyric) and Paul Marks Joffe (music)

It came out of a songwriting project by Levow an Bys, a Cornish choir run by Pip Wright. If you’re ever in Penzance then look Pip up and have a go at her morning group called the Dawn Chorus – a drop in singing session. She’s a treasure! and I modelled my own Dawn Chorus in Kendal on hers.

Simply there
Simply there
Stay a while
Stay a while 
And be simply there

What a delight it is to sing a few songs together and connect! I’m not sure what to make of the value of it but I know there’s SUCH value in it.

Thank you so much for being there last night and this morning and sorry if you weren’t able to be.

We shared our answers to the question “Where are you planted?” – referring to the song “Bloom where you’re planted” and . . . . . . . . . well . . . . . . . it wasn’t a very good question! and didn’t mean much to some of us. I think when I first learnt that song and wanted to share it with this group it was very much, for me, about being planted in my unwanted, unexpected childlessness and knowing that it would be so much better to bloom here than wither.

Now, given that I’m past the storm of grief (as Jody Day puts it) I feel my childlessness identity will always be absolutely key to who I am but some other elements of my identity are coming through more, slowly; the type of song leader I am, the type of daughter I am, my newfound interest in boundaries around some of my friendships and family relationships, my growing identity as an older woman wanting to age consciously. So, right now, my planting has suddenly changed from having my Mum very close by and needing me daily to having her in a nursing home I hope she’ll love but that is 4 hours drive away at best.

Even if the question didn’t resonate with you I loved sharing our thoughts on it and hearing your voices.

As a warm up we did some nonsense sliding up and up exercises and then used The Little things in Life by Mary Denn and added it’s other two parts that we hadn’t tried last week. We moved on to reminding ourselves of Ros Thomas “Bloom Where You’re Planted” – that one’s a round where the 2nd 3rd and 4th parts just come in later. And having introduced all 6 possible parts of The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein last week we went back to that to try and consolidate some of that wisdom. On Sunday we had time to have a go at “We hold you in our circle” by Emily Roblyn as well.

Just a quick reminder of words and tunes where possible:

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Bloom Where You’re Planted (by Ros Thomas)

Bloom where you're planted
Flourish in that land
Hear, hear how your heart sings
And shine just where you stand,
(Shine where you . . .) 

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them at all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one

Remember the session dates are always listed on the public page for Growing Singing Childless & Whole so you don’t have to log in here to see those.

What a relief it is to be back again.

Thank you so much for being there last night and this morning and sorry you weren’t able to be. I’m feeling delighted and relieved to have got started again and am clear that this is the only group I’m starting for now till I feel a bit stronger. Knowing I had a lovely bunch of empathetic women to see, whoever came, really helped!

We shared our answers to the question “What do you to stop? How do you stop?” and it was lovely to hear other women’s thoughts even if no one had “the answer”. Ideas I loved being reminded of included saying “No” sometimes, stopping for an hour today in order to keep going tomorrow, mindfulness meditation practice, taking a walk outside, singing for a bit, getting out into nature and remembering that we are animals and, as such, HAVE to have down times now and then – the moon does, plants do, we’re the only animals who have this crazy idea we can just keep going!

As a warm up we used The Little things in Life by Mary Denn and Val Regan’s Vocal Circuit Training. (Little video of me reminding you of that below). We moved on to introducing all 6 possible parts of The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein.

Just a quick reminder of words and tunes where possible:

The Little Things In Life by Mary Denn

Breathe in, breathe out
The little things in life
The little things in life are what it's all about

Vocal Circuit Training by Val Regan

I wanna be a bass / and I’m a tenor / Alto’s where it’s at / I’m a soprano

And here’s a link to the video of that.

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This has 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve introduced all 6 parts but DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember them at all! We’ll be repeating and repeating which is what’s so lovely about using singing.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Remember the session dates are always listed on the public page for Growing Singing Childless & Whole so you don’t have to log in here to see those.

Thank you for being there last night and this morning if you could be and sorry you weren’t if you couldn’t. I do love hearing from you if you can’t so that I know not to worry, but I also trust that you’re doing what you need to do in not coming so never feel any obligation to let me know.

We shared our feelings on the seasons and which, if any, is our favourite season. I loved what Elspeth said about working hard to find the merits in every season and am going to take that away with me – thank you Elspeth! I do love those moments of hearing all your speaking voices for a few seconds, I think it’s quite important that that “community” bit of being a sort of community choir don’t get missed given that we’re online.

As warms ups we used Slow Down (my own little mantra) and Val Regan’s Vocal Circuit Training , and sang Make New Friends. We moved on to ensuring we’d introduced all 4 possible parts of You Gotta Start Somewhere by Penny Stone. And lastly (written with the 10 year celebration of Gateway Women in mind) we did the last of the three possible parts of Here We Are. There’s a rough and ready video of me reminding you of all three parts below.

Just a quick reminder of words and tunes where possible:

Here We Are (by Clare) A song to celebrate Jody Day and 10 years of Gateway Women

Here on this link is a little video of me reminding you of all three parts. On verse one (the Jody Day verse) the middle part is alone, on verse two (the “I” verse), the top part joins the middle part, and on verse three (the “we” verse) the low part joins the other two. Then on verse 4 (the male verse) Ian sings in that low part again in his own voice and lastly on verse 5 (the “we” verse again) a low version of the top part comes in – that just involves singing the top part in a lower voice (a different octave if that makes any sense to you – but you don’t have to know that term). That’s the patter of the song in video of it with the Mandala picture in the background all the time.

 Here she wrote, felt alone
 Here she stayed to welcome you
 Here she bloomed where she was planted
 Sharing courage with her peers
  
 Here I am, not alone
 Here I’ll stay to welcome you
 Here I’ll bloom where I am planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here he his, not alone
 Here he’ll stay to welcome you
 Here he’ll bloom where he is planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are 

And click here for a link to it on YouTube then you’ll be able to see all the blurb I wrote about it on YouTube. Thank you for liking it!

Vocal Circuit Training by Val Regan

i wanna be a bass / and I’m a tenor / Alto’s where it’s at / I’m a soprano

You gotta start somewhere by Penny Stone

You gotta start somewhere if you wanna get anywhere x 3
Take a step, take a shuffle, we're all just muddling through just me and you 

A link to a video on YouTube of Penny Stone teaching that song (You gotta start somewhere) and then, at 8 mins 20 secs singing it in full with all the parts. We’ve tried out 3 of the 4 parts now but this week I just reminded you of the first (the kind of tune part).

The Wisdom of Trees by Frances Bernstein

This will be new song for us in 6 parts. So simple, so gorgeous. The words are below. We’ve done only one part so far and DON’T give yourself a hard time if you can’t remember that at all! We’ll be learning more of it bit by bit.

 Follow the ways of the wise old tree
 Borrow the ways of the wise old tree                
 x 2
  
 Stand tall and proud x 4
  
 Be content with your natural beauty x 4
  
 Stay connected to your roots x 4
  
 Stand quite still enjoy the view x 2
  
 Now and then . . go out on a limb x 2
   

Here’s a link to Penny Stone teaching it and singing it on her wonderful website SingLouderThanGuns.

Remember the session dates are always listed on the public page for Growing Singing Childless & Whole so you don’t have to log in here to see those.

Thank you for being there last night and this morning if you could be and sorry you weren’t if you couldn’t.

We shared tiny little “wins” with each other even if just “coming to singing” was the win because we couldn’t think of anything else!

As warms ups we used Val Regan’s Vocal Circuit Training , and sang Make New Friends. We moved on to Two More Minutes by Penny Stone with all the harmony parts. And with the 10 year celebration of Gateway Women in mind we did another part of Here We Are. As well as reminding you of the tune we also added an upper part to that so now you have two to choose from.

On Sunday night we spoke a little about the growing support for childless not by choice men and Rachel’s husband, Andy, had been involved in a podcast with Katy Seppi of Chasing Creation on that very day. It’s not clear to me whether you can listen to that without having a ticket to the Childless Collective Summit but I’m trying to find out and will let you know.

And I’m completely delighted to share this poster, from Angela, about a singing retreat she is running in Wales in July. Angela usually comes along on the Sunday evening session so you may not have met her. She is lovely! and runs face-to-face choirs just as I do when that’s possible. I just love the idea that you might go along to a REAL LIFE singing event with her. Any more questions for her just get in touch directly using the details on the poster here.

Just a quick reminder of words and tunes where possible:

Here We Are (by Clare) A song to celebrate Jody Day and 10 years of Gateway Women

 Here she wrote, felt alone
 Here she stayed to welcome you
 Here she bloomed where she was planted
 Sharing courage with her peers
  
 Here I am, not alone
 Here I’ll stay to welcome you
 Here I’ll bloom where I am planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here he his, not alone
 Here he’ll stay to welcome you
 Here he’ll bloom where he is planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are 

And click here for a link to it on YouTube then you’ll be able to see all the blurb I wrote about it on YouTube. Thank you for liking it!

Make New Friends (I don’t know where this song comes from, sorry)

Make new friends 
And keep the old
One is silver 
And the other gold

Vocal Circuit Training by Val Regan

i wanna be a bass / and I’m a tenor / Alto’s where it’s at / I’m a soprano

You gotta start somewhere by Penny Stone

You gotta start somewhere if you wanna get anywhere x 3
Take a step, take a shuffle, we're all just muddling through just me and you 

A link to a video on YouTube of Penny Stone teaching that song (You gotta start somewhere) and then, at 8 mins 20 secs singing it in full with all the parts. We’ve tried out 3 of the 4 parts now but this week I just reminded you of the first (the kind of tune part).

Two More Minutes by Penny Stone – a lovely little song celebrating the returning of the light

Two more minutes of sunlight e-ve-ry day
Two more minutes of sunlight
That's the way this world grows a little brighter
That's the way-ay-ay

Here’s a link to Penny Stone teaching it and singing it on her wonderful website SingLouderThanGuns.

This was like the beginning of a “term” if you like – the first of a series of 6 sessions before I take a break for a few weeks and (hopefully) take my campervan around the UK a bit to see this and that and just be away from it all. Remember the session dates are always listed on the public page for Growing Singing Childless & Whole so you don’t have to log in here to see those.

Thank you for being there last night and this morning if you could be and sorry you weren’t if you couldn’t. There’s never any pressure to send apologies and it’s lovely to hear from you in any case. I love getting your messages telling me why you can’t come and I hope your internet arrives very soon Lu, and hope your shop opening is going beautifully today Laura Jo.

We spoke a little about the 10 year anniversary of Gateway Women and I taught one part of a new song to celebrate that anniversary. I’ve shared the video of it below – if you look at YouTube then all the blurb about the song is below the video. I was really struck by Wendy’s courage in sharing her own story 15 or so years ago to the Guardian (a UK national newspaper) about the experience of being a step-grandmother having never been a Mum. I really feel like even tiny little steps in the direction of being more visible as people who happen not to have kids when that wasn’t our choice are powerful – even the tiniest steps.

We also spoke a little about experimenting with adding your voices the recordings we’re singing along with. This would be a bit techno but I’m hoping we can hold each other’s hands through the process and get much more of a group sound onto the recordings we’re singing along with – maybe just one or two of them at least! You’ll hear more about this as I learn how it’s done and how to make it as simple as possible.

As well as learning the tune of Here We Are, we sang Slow Down as a warm up on Sunday and Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle this morning. We also had a go at both We Hold You In Our Circle and Bloom Where You’re Planted

Just a quick reminder of words and tunes where possible:

Here We Are (by Clare) A song to celebrate Jody Day and 10 years of Gateway Women

 Here she wrote, felt alone
 Here she stayed to welcome you
 Here she bloomed where she was planted
 Sharing courage with her peers
  
 Here I am, not alone
 Here I’ll stay to welcome you
 Here I’ll bloom where I am planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here he his, not alone
 Here he’ll stay to welcome you
 Here he’ll bloom where he is planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are, not alone
 Here we’ll stay to welcome you
 Here we’ll bloom where we are planted
 Sharing courage with our peers
  
 Here we are 

And click here for a link to it on YouTube then you’ll be able to see all the blurb I wrote about it on YouTube. Thank you for liking it!

Slow Down (by Clare) – a really quick warm up song to remind me of a mantra of my own

Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing
Slow down, lower your standards and when you are in doubt, sing (then rises up a note to sing again)

Be Still and Know by Joachim Meikle

Be still and know that day and night
Be still and know that dark and light 
Are one holy circle

And here’s a link to my teaching video of that one.

Bloom Where You’re Planted (by Ros Thomas)

Bloom where you're planted
Flourish in that land
Hear, hear how your heart sings
And shine just where you stand,
(Shine where you . . .) 

Hold you in our circle by Emily Roblyn

We hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love
Hold you in our circle
Hold you in our love

And click here to see my teaching video of that one