Promise #2- BUSY DOING GOOD

When I was 16 years old I made a promise to God that I would change the world. Obviously I was a pretty intense teenager and perhaps a little bit of an overachiever, but I have thought of this promise often over the years. I had attended a presentation by a missionary who had just returned from Africa. He spoke about the children in the area where he had served and shared with us the fact that most of these children would not live past the age of two due to malnutrition and disease. I remember that day as if it was yesterday and now 28 years after making that promise I believe that BUSY DOING GOOD can be that change.                                                                                                                        

I believe that our children are our most creative, caring, and energetic resource, and that their innate desire to love, to help, and to serve others can accomplish amazing things. I also know that kids watch the darnedest things on the computer (at least mine do) and so I came up with an idea. If my being silly will help us reach these little ones – help us open up a dialogue with them about the difficult things that we are facing in the world, help them see the impact for good that their little hands can make then bring on the silly. 

Today I celebrate because my website is up, my Facebook page and Instagram following are growing (slowly but surely) and I released my very first music video. Who knows if this project will be a success but I am trying, and like my Momma use to always say, "Do your best and God will do the rest."                                                                                                            

Here's just a snippet of the video but you can watch the real thing at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82N_Brm99o0

Promise #1

Making promises to God should not be taken lightly. I can think of two promises in particular that have sent me on adventures that I would never have imagined.

I was born in a little town called Aulander, NC. We have one stoplight and less than 1000 people in the whole town. I had a good childhood. I left home when I was 17 to go to a performing arts school in Winston-Salem which was in and of itself a miracle due to the fact that in order for me to attend we had to put down a $1000 deposit to hold my place. There was just no way that we could have ever come up with this money on our own. My Dad was a tobacco farmer and he like may other small farmers had hit on hard times. I think that part of me actually wanted to stay home and finish out my senior year with friends anyway but nevertheless I made a deal with God. If he really wanted me to go to this school then somehow he would have to help me raise the funds. I had been to a summer program for singers a month or so prior in which we were each given a sponsor who covered the cost of the program. I thought that perhaps if I reached out to this sponsor he might be willing to put a little money towards this possible new adventure as well but it seemed pretty unrealistic. Time went by and the deadline approached. I actually think that it was the day of the deadline when the letter arrived. I remember seeing the man's name on the envelope as I sat outside of the post office in the car with my mom. When I opened it I was dumbfounded. He had not given me a token gesture, he had paid the full amount. This man who I had never even met and I am sad to say whose name I do not remember gave me a $1000 check so that I could go to the North Carolina School of the Arts. There was no going back on my promise to God and so within the month I packed my bags and I was gone. Because I took that leap of faith I have sung in famous opera houses around the world. I have sung leading roles with Placid Domingo, Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel just to name a few. I lived in NYC for nearly 9 years performing and now I live out west but as much as it still feels like home to me I have never lived in Aulander since that summer.

The little red brick house where I grew up in the background...

We lived just next door to the Town Hall where both my mom and my grandfather served as Town Clerk. Mom would just walk over after putting me on the bus for school in the mornings.

Downtown- My mamma always said if you blinked you would miss it! 

CLUELESS!

What am I doing and how did I get here? I have never even taken a typing class and as far as computer technology goes I have absolutely NO CLUE! I suppose I will just sit here and peck away and hope that my brain eventually catches up with today's technology but I doubt it will. Computers give me anxiety. I have a real problem trusting that things that I can no longer see are actually hiding somewhere in this piece of machinery or out in cyberspace somewhere. I'll post a pic of my desktop below so you can see what I mean. Maybe my determination will make up for my lack of computer skills. I have always been willful so my father likes to remind me. I get it from my mother he says. She passed away last November and so I am happy to hold on to anything of hers that I can at this point. I am not a writer and I have never thought of myself as one for words. I am a singer! But, as I get older I realize that it is the words that have always made the music for me so perhaps I am a woman of words after all.