We will soon be posting a story about Tere. She’s a mom who dedicated her entire life to her children. Now, it’s her turn. She grew up in Mexico and studied the Mexican arts of dancing and singing when she was a child. All of these things sat on the back burner for most of her life as she raised her family. Now, with her children grown, she says, “Life begins at 40!” Jackie wanted to share her experience with Tere before the story was posted.
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We’ve started a new year, it’s 2014. I have a lot of goals that I want to accomplish. They range from little things like learning another language to becoming financially independent to completing some musical projects to creating a successful business venture.
At this point in my life, I am very interested in being able to express myself more artistically. This new year finds me in a new place, a new home. We recently relocated back to Connecticut and I am so very happy to be here.
I am so grateful to a couple who have helped me out tremendously and given me what I feel is a new start. I am very grateful for my family and my partner who lives with me. I am so happy to have a nice little cat. But, most of all, it is delightful to wake up in a new environment that is peaceful and more local to all the places I need to get to on a regular basis. I love my little house.
So this is how I am starting off the new year. I look at my calendar and realize that two weeks have gone by and I have all of these aggressive goals that I want to accomplish and I need to get on the ball. It’s amazing how time just passes so quickly. We get caught up on other little things that really don’t have that much importance in the grand scheme of things, but can take our focus and hold it for a time.
I recently had lunch with a woman whom I’m very proud of. We met several years ago when I was teaching voice lessons and she signed on as a student. As a coach, as a teacher, it is very important to know what students’ goals are so that I can help them reach them. This woman’s goals, her musical goals were to be able to sing her cultural music in performance venues. So we start with, okay, let me hear you sing something. She sang for me and had a lovely voice. Then we did some scale work and she’s right on the note every single time. So then I stop with the piano and I ask her again what is it you want to accomplish? She says I want to be able to go out and perform and sing music from my country. I just look at her and say well why aren’t you doing that? She says I just don’t know how. This is my first step, coming to see you to get some vocal training.
At this point we sit down and I bring out the tea and we have a nice conversation. I tell her there is nothing wrong with her voice only that she is not expressing it in the way she wants to. If she wants to sing, then she should get out there and sing. Period.
When you are focused on whatever it is you want to accomplish, the way is made for you. I told her to get started, just find a guitarist to work with. Go to places where her music is performed. Talk to people. Post an ad on the board at a music store. Talk to other musicians. And, learn how to play the guitar herself so that in the long run she is not dependent on another person. 
Long story short, several years later, this woman has grown in leaps and bounds. She has worked with a variety of musicians, she’s gone back to get more training with her dancing and singing and she’s doing her thing. We’re friends on Facebook and it very exciting for me to watch her page because she’s always posting information about her performances, her pictures and the conversations and reviews she gets from people are wonderful. She gets a lot of praise from people who have been to her performances.
The most wonderful thing about this woman and her accomplishments is that she is being who she is. She is expanding the expression of who she actually is in her soul. She sings and dances not because she’s looking for anything in particular, but because she has a great desire to express the Mexican culture and herself in it. She said that when her kids were in school she was always cooking traditional Mexican dishes and bringing them into the school for various occasions. There were times when the schools would have cultural days and she always offered to cook and to bring food or to come in and sing one of their traditional songs. She did that for years while her children were growing. Now, with her children grown, she is taking it to the next level and it’s a very natural process. She loves the art of her culture and is expressing it to the public.
I talk about her because this is how we should be, not seeking something outside of ourselves but seeking to be more of who we truly are on the inside and expressing it.
As for myself I have done many creative things, just not on a large public platform. This year, 2014, is the time for me to do more and to be more. I look at the calendar and two weeks have gone by and I know that I have so many things I would like to accomplish selected to and I reawaken myself to the fact that I am letting time go by and not using it in a way that allows me to express myself in creative ways. I am very interested in leaving things behind that speak to who I am. If someone else is inspired by that, great – that’s the whole purpose of it.
So, this is just a reminder to myself and to anyone else out there listening or reading this thing. Do you. Express yourself in positive, creative ways and send it out there. The inspiration of my friend, this lovely lady from Mexico, speaks volumes. Hopefully, you are encouraged from her story. It is a very simple task that we all have at this time in Earth’s history. We’ve got to change the waves. It starts with the individual. It begins with you.
Writer’s bio: Jackie Burney works for reid tool supply company, is a mom to three grown children, is happily in her 50’s and is ready to greet the world!