09/08/2026
I believe that singing together is part of who we are as humans...something that belongs to us deeply. I meet so many people who have been shut down about their singing voice, often at school, maybe a sibling teasing, but somewhere along the line they just stopped singing. This is one of the reasons I love to bring people together to sing - it's an important part of the work of cultural repair to reclaim our joy and ease with sharing our own unique voices together. Thank you Anna Sadler for having me at the Companionship Cafe last month to lead singing for wellbeing for people journeying with grief and loss. It was humbling and tender and re-lit a fire in me. I witnessed about a third of the group who shared they felt they couldn't sing, open up and smile and enjoy singing. This is everything to me. After the singing the conversations were free flowing, there was a buzz in the room and something had shifted. Several people had come to the cafe for the first time newly bereaved. I found this space when my mum was first diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2025 and I went there completely bereft and as soon as I entered the door I knew I could let it all out with these strangers who had lived similar experiences. I knew I wanted to return and offer singing to this group because for me it has been an essential support coping with grief, knowing singing will reset my nervous system, get the dopamine and oxytocin flowing and reconnect me to the embodied sense of joy in being alive through use my voice. Meeting this room of people in a very tender point in their lives, I wavered when I heard the resistance to singing, but I know so deeply singing helps, heals and reconnects us to something greater. Thankful to eveyone who explored a creative edge with me, it was truly beautiful.
