Music For Freedom 2012

It is coming!!! Music For Freedom 2012 with Chuck and Dave (and a few songs from me!). As a fun addition...the Glee @ Heart Choir (intergeneration choir) will open for Chuck and Dave this year!

Saturday April 14th at 7:00 PM

It will be at Lutherwood Children's Mental Health Centre

This year we are supporting both a local organization and a global one! They are Free the Children and Lutherwood Children's Mental Health Centre. They are both amazing organizations that we are so happy to be a part of!

I am so excited about the concert. It will be an amazing night of music and inspiration, a night of people coming together in song to help others. That sounds like the perfect night to me.

If you came last year...we hope you can come again! If you weren't able to come or didn't know about it then we hope you can come for the first time!

So...stay tuned for information about tickets and more details!!!

"Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory."

Sir Thomas Beecham

Come and join us for music that you will always remember.

Before you speak...THINK...

Before you speak...
THINK


T     is it true?
H    is it helpful
I      is it inspiring?
N    is it necessary?
K    is it KIND?


So simple, yet so powerful. If only we could all do this every day.


It has been way too long between posts. Life gets so busy, so quickly and time seems to get away from me! I am really going to try to post on a more consistent basis. My brother has been telling me about the business model he follows and one of the things that he does is make 10 day goals, 10 month goals and 5 year goals. The trick is to not only set goals but to actually write them down. I think this is such a great idea so I have started to do just that! One of my 10 day goals is to pick a day of the week that I will always be sure to post on my blog. So I am going to put a post up every Monday night!


One of my 10 month goals is to get my webpage up and running. I have recently bought the domain www.yoursinkindness.com and have just put up a main page with a quote. My 10 month goal is to get it full of quotes, kindness ideas and challenges, links to videos and websites and much more. I will keep you posted on how it is going!


Live life. Love Life. Be Kind.

'Tis The Season

Tis the season for giving and right now my heart is overflowing with the kindness I see around me. So...I thought I would share!

1. At my school we have been filling back packs with supplies for families in need that will be sent to our local shelters. I put it out to my staff and was not surprised to see the overwhelming response to help! For the past 3 weeks we have been collecting and today was the day that we gathered everything together to load up and ship out. 

Walking in to the staffroom and seeing how our teachers, our community, our families had come together with such generosity brought tears to my eyes. There was a table of 40 backpacks barely able to be zipped shut as well as an equal number of bags for the "overflow". I feel so lucky to be a part of a staff and community who are so caring and kind. Such a simple thing.

2. Tonight I was volunteering at the Food Bank where I give tours and run an activity to groups of kids coming through to learn more. Tonight was a hockey team. 14 boys all about 9 years old and FULL of energy. My job tonight was to run the activity where we sort some food and make Food Hampers (a box of food that could get a family through 2-3 days). The boys were competitive and excited and loud. They completed the activity and did a great job. 

Then I do a wrap up and talk about who needs Food Hampers? How would you get one? How would you feel if you had to ask for help? If you had no money to buy food? The room goes silent. A few hands go up with answers like sad, bad, lonely and scared. Such simple answers but so exactly right on from these 9 year old boys. One boy said he might be scared to ask for help. A discussion started about needing help and asking for help and how that is truly a strong thing to be able to do that. I told them that everyone...every single person...will need to ask for help at some point in their lives and that we are surrounded by people who can help. One last boy put up his hand and quietly said "Kinda like I need help in Math sometimes?" A few boys laughed and I said, "It is like that...because now you can think about how you feel when you are embarrassed to ask for help in math when you think of people needing to ask for food." The laughter stopped. 

Even if just one of those boys goes away with a little more empathy then when he came in...my night was more than worth it.

3. And of course our school and its connection with the Retirement home next door is an on going sense of happiness for me. Glee @ Heart sang at the School Board Inaugural meeting this week. As always I can barely contain how proud I am and how touched I feel when watching and listening to this choir sing. I just feel like our connection is so special and I try to foster it whenever I can! 

We also have residents come to read to some of our primary classes once a month. Another experience I just LOVE to be a part of. Today was the day for December! The residents get such joy out of being around the kids and reading to them and talking with them. The kids get such an amazing opportunity to know the residents.  To learn about respect and understanding when the person reading can't show the pages because it is too tricky, or when they are hard to hear, or when the residents want to hold their hands. What child shouldn't be exposed to that kind of experience!?!

And again...talk about pride...even our Kindergartens can sit through 2 books read back to back in silence. Listening and being respectful. Smiling and giving hugs and high fives. It truly warms my heart.

4. And then there are the things that happen right in my own house...that are so small they might go unnoticed but when they are noticed they are a gift.

Today we were playing in the playroom in the morning and it was still dark. Laiklyn (2) went to try to turn on the light (one of those circle dimmer switches that you have to press in). She so wants to be able to reach it like Dayaa (3) can, and she is getting close, but her little finger tips just barely touch. She doesn't have the strength to push the button with just her finger tips. So here Laiklyn is, right up on her tip toes trying to make herself as tall as she can and trying with all her might. Getting frustrated and a little teary. And then Dayaa comes over to her says in the cutest little motivating, positive voice, "Laiklyn, what if I put my hand on the light and you can push my hand?" She reaches her little hand up and places it flat over the light switch. Laiklyn, up on her tip toes again, reaches up and as she grunts and pushes with her fingertips, Dayaa gives an imperceptible little push too. And TA DA!!! The light come on! Dayaa says "You did it Laiklyn!" Laiklyn's smile filled the room and the sight of my girls filled my heart!

I could go on forever...but you get the idea!!!

Happy World Kindness Day!

To one and all...happy World Kindness Day!!


"We can't all do great things,
But we can do small things,
with great LOVE."


Mother Teresa

A little video about what kindness is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvG1iVw8IjQ

Remember...

Today, November 11th, I was honoured to remember in many special ways...


At our school we had our Remembrance day assembly. It is truly amazing to watch a gym full of 900 kids, aged 3 to 12, sit in silence and respectfully listen and remember those who have gone before. Glee at Heart sang "Oh, Canada" to start it off. Leading the choir and watching the faces of each senior singing their hearts out brought tears to my eyes. As I watched one woman; dressed in her uniform, singing "Oh, Canada" as loud as she could, with tears in her eyes, and so clearly full of pride, I got all choked up. 


Then we sang "What A Wonderful World". I don't think I will ever lose the feeling I get when I watch the Grade 6's and the seniors join their voices to create such beautiful music, with such a great message. The song was so great because it is timeless and it is one everyone knows, young and old alike. And watching Glee at Heart sing "What A Wonderful World" I can't help but think...it truly is a wonderful world.


The rest of the assembly was filled with choral poetry read by the whole school, songs, stories, and the laying of the wreaths that each grade created. Again, I am blown away at how a whole school can come together and so respectfully remember a time that came way before them.


Next was off with the Grade 6's to the Westmount to join the seniors for their service. Well, the tears that began at the school came out in full force at the Westmount. What an honour to be a part of their service. To be in a room of people who were there, who lived it, who can remember in a way that only they can, was so completely humbling and overwhelming. I was so touched by their faces, their stories and their tears.


We sang the same songs and again...both touched me deeply. Especially since the choir did not sing alone. Every person in the room sang loud and clear right along with us and it was wonderful. In the room there were a handful of veterans and one in particular who read a poem and laid the wreath. She wore her medals proudly over her heart. Some of the Grade 6's asked what her medals were for so I encouraged them to go and ask her. 


Well, this 91 year old woman gave them (and me) an amazing talk about her experience. She was a cook - she cooked for over 300 people at a time. She told us about her medals for service. She told us about how she lost friends during a bombing that just happened to be on a day she wasn't working. She told us about numerous bombings...taking cover, in complete darkness, waiting for it to be done, only to come out after and go to check the nearby village and have to step over dead bodies because that village got destroyed. And then she looked at all the grade 6's and said "I am proud of my service and if I were young again I would do it all again." With tears streaming down my face now...she asked if anyone else had any questions. One of the grade 6 girls asked her what kinds of things she cooked. Well, her face completely lit up and she went into every detail about one of her favourite treats she used to make for the soldiers. So cute!


The walk back to the school was filled with questions from the 6's and comments on how touched they were by all they heard. What an amazing connection we have made.  Joining the young and old, creating a unique bond between the past and the present, what a gift. What an amazing day of remembering.


So today, on November 11th, I remember.

The world needs more YOU!

• The world needs more YOU in it.
• 
  
• In her speeches, Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, reminds us that a lot of people these days are still waiting for Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi to come back- but they are gone.  We are it.  It is up to us now.  It is up to you.  More than ever before, our world needs more goodness, more kindness, more caring, more action, more YOU in it.
• 
  
• John F. Kennedy said once that one person can make a difference, and every person must try.  What if each of us really tried?  What if each of us spontaneously decided that, one by one, we really can be the better world we wish for?
• 
  
• This is our time,
• yours and mine.
• 
  
• You have important discoveries to make.
• Now is the time to make them.
• 
  
• You have important talents to develop.
• Now is the time to develop them.
• 
  
• You have important gifts to give the world.
• Now is the time to give them.
• 
  
• By Kobi Yamada from 1: How Many People Does It Take To Make A Difference?

Glee At Heart

So I am privileged to be a part of a very unique choir called Glee At Heart. It is made up of 15 Grade 6 students from my school and 10 seniors from the retirement home that is right next door to our school. 


We meet every Monday and sing together. We sing music from the present and the past and sometimes a mash up of both. It is such an amazing thing. To join the young and old together and make beautiful music...truly wonderful!


A few weeks ago we were approached by Wilfrid Laurier University to sing as an opening act for their Music Care Conference. This is a conference that is all about Music for healing and Music for changing the world. So we practiced like crazy and today was the big performance. I wanted to share the email that I sent to my staff to let them know how the morning went...

Hi All!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!

I just wanted to share a bit about the experience Kyle and I had with the Glee choir today. (I atteached 2 pictures too!) It was AMAZING!

We were to meet at 7:45 for sound check. Kyle and I thought we would get there a little earlier so that we knew what was going on. Of course we were only slightly surprised that some of the 6's were there already!! They are such a wonderful and eager group of kids!

Once we all were there, we went on stage for the sound check. The 6's were so cute...helping the seniors by holding their hands, arranging chairs and coats. It just had my heart smiling so big as I watched them. Rita...one of the more entertaning seniors...came out yodelling and hugging and kissing everyone! We practiced the songs and then back to the green room for snacks. The seniors all had their morning coffee and meds.

Then it was show time! We went back on to stage...this time to a full theatre of people! The conference was all about Music as a form of healing and Music as a way to make the world a better place. The audience was full of musicians, music therapists, teachers, and many more. The first person who spoke welcomed everyone and spoke of the power of music and how present and universal music is. It was just such an amazing atmosphere. Next they introduced us and Brian (the musical therapist from the Westmount) talked a little bit about us and how the choir came to be. 

And then we sang.

And it was so moving.

I was teary as I led the choir and watched all the faces. I was touched by the way it seemed as if they had been singing together for ever. The way our 6's sang loud and strong and clear. The way the residents tapped their feet and came to life and sang from their hearts. The way everyone smiled and let the music flow out of them The way all the voices joined as one and made truly beautiful music. 

At the end of our last song the choir splits and half sings "Don't stop believing." while the other half sang "What the world needs now". While we were singing this, Rita (who had been feeling the music from the moment she arrived!!) grabbed the hands of Talia and Claire on either side of her and started swaying and raising their hands in the air. And as the song ended, and the choir sang out the last line "Don't stop believing, what the world needs now is love"  and everyone was smiling and singing their hearts out...the audience started clapping and cheering and they rose to their feet with tears in their eyes. The look on the faces of every member of the choir was priceless. 

What an amazing morning. What an amazing group of kids. What an amazing group of seniors. What an amazing musical moment.

We are so lucky for this connection with the Westmount. This morning was just one of the many moments shared with them where I didn't think my heart could smile any bigger!! We are so proud of our students - who sounded amazing...but more than that...who acted with such kindness and compassion and respect. My heart is bursting!

Thanks for listening...and if you see any of the Glee at heart kids...let them know they did a wonderful job!

Yours In Kindness,

Karen

P.S.  A funny side note...when it was time to leave the stage, I went to help Rita. She took my hand, a few of our girls were helping too, and this was our dialogue...

Rita  "Where are you taking me now?" 

Me "We are all done. It is time to go."

Rita "Is it over?"

Me  "Yes." 

Rita "We were pretty great weren't we!" 

Me "You were better then great!"

Rita "Well, now I can finally take a shit!"