I’ve been thinking lately about one of our purposes in life which is to be of service to humanity. I know there are many wonderful and inspiring examples out there to be shared of how individuals are arising to make a difference in society.  So I was inspired to collect some of these stories and I need your help and collaboration.  The purpose is to encourage and acknowledge those who have given service to others even in the smallest way. Send in a story of anyone you know who has rendered some meaningful service that you think should be shared (it can be as short or as long as you like). Please submit them in the comment section below of my blog.  My family and I will choose our favorite ones and we will give a copy of the Birds of Love gift set to the individuals whose service have touched us the most. Kindly spread the word so your friends can send in submissions too.

We’re having a summer special on our Birds of Love gift sets.  It was originally priced at $29 but is now on sale for $19.95.  The video below shows you what’s inside the booklet so you have a better idea of what it looks like.  It is a perfect wedding or anniversary gift or even a special present to any loved one.  If you would like to order 10 or more please contact me for further discounts. For more details about the package and how to order, please click here.

Recent great news is that my producer, Jarome, and his lovely family just moved to Beijing!

We’ve worked long distance for several years now and it has had its successes and challenges.  One of the difficulties was that the distance delayed the release of our first project, Fire and Gold as it took awhile sending files back and forth and collaborating from afar.  But since we were both dedicated to the music projects, we were able to follow through and finish them (since Fire and Gold we have released the CD Birds of Love and digital release – Edge of Forever as well as a couple of charity music projects).  Recently we have done more collaborating as far as writing the songs and it has been inspiring working on them together.

Now that Jarome has moved to Beijing, I’m thrilled to be able to record in his professional studio which is a much better quality than I’ve used before so I’m sure the music will sound even better!  What a treat to be able to work in person on the many upcoming music projects.  I will be soon be sharing more about one of the songs we are currently working on…

Here is a photo of a section of Jarome’s studio

Yesterday I had the pleasure of singing ‘Birds of Love’ at the wedding of one of my friends.  This must be the 6th or 7th time in the last year that I have been asked to sing it.  It has been awhile though since the last wedding so I made sure to practice a couple of days in advance.  I felt very prepared yesterday as I had run it through my mind several times and sung it in the morning…

As the program started, I began to review the lyrics of the song in my mind and suddenly realized that I had forgotten some of the words of the song! I began to panic as I tried to remember the words and couldn’t.  I took some deep breaths, calmed my racing heart (as it was just about my turn to sing) and finally remembered the words just in the nick of time (seriously)!  I’m glad to say that the performance went very well and that the lyrics weren’t an issue (I’m never a good judge about performances but my friends informed me later).

One thing I learned from this experience is to practice the song many more times in advance so that it becomes so natural to me that I can sing it without thinking.  Sometimes as an artist, I think we try and get by on the minimum because it takes time and lots of hard work to achieve perfection.  Definitely an important lesson learned and one I don’t want to repeat again. :D

Here is a sneak peek of one of the pages within the quotation book that we compiled in Birds of Love.  I love how all the paintings are Chinese illustrations and each page has a different, elegant painting.   Since I have a passion for art, in preparing for Birds of Love, I so enjoyed the mingling of music combined with art as well as the collection of beautiful quotations to create a unique package.  Below is the second page of the book which has the lyrics of one of the songs on the CD, ‘Where there is Love’.  We thought about every detail such as the quality and thickness of the paper, the gloss on the pages to bring out the vivid colors in the paintings as well as the gold lettering on the first letter of each quote.  To see more paintings in the book, you can view the video for the Birds of Love gift set.

The first song I composed for the CD, ‘Birds of Love‘ was the title song itself.   This is how the composition came to pass… One of my dearest friends was getting married in our home and had asked me to sing something at her wedding.  At the time I had no idea what would be appropriate.  I didn’t really have anything in my repertoire on marriage and many of the songs I knew or composed were in the minor key and not very joyful.

It was about a month before the wedding and I remember thinking what a great idea it would be to surprise her!  I decided to set a beautiful quotation on the theme of marriage to music and practiced diligently for the wedding day.   Two days before the wedding, I caught a cold and didn’t think I would be able to sing the song at my friend’s wedding.  I had spent so much time working on the song and developing it and didn’t want to let her down but what choice did I have?  The day before the wedding was the rehearsal and I was so torn about singing and had made up my mind that I wouldn’t be able to perform.  I had made a recording of the song with rough vocals and thought that we could just play that instead of singing live.  That felt like a feasible solution.  A friend who was in charge of the program just would not have it!  He told me outright that I had to sing!  No ifs or buts about it… even if my voice was not top quality – he told me it would touch my friend deeply even if I had half a voice.  It was not about the performance but the thought and the gift itself of standing in front of my dear friends and singing for them no matter how I sounded.  It definitely took a lot of courage and faith to follow through and go ahead with it.  I’m pleased to say that I was very happy with the performance and that my voice actually came through. :)

You can hear ‘Birds of Love’ by clicking here.  I look forward to sharing more about the piece itself in another blog.

Quote of the Day: “Wherefore, wed thou, in the heaven of Thy mercy these two birds of the nest of Thy love and make them the means of attracting perpetual grace, that from the union of these two seas of love, a wave of tenderness may surge and cast the pearls of pure and goodly issue on the shore of life.”
~‘Abdu’l-Bahá