"Up to my eyeballs..."

E kala mai! Sorry for the lack of postings!

I've been up to my eyeballs with mele studies. It's been heaven spending ENTIRE days studying language and music. Heaven. Bliss. What I've always dreamed of doing.

For a year, I've been on a quest trying to figure out "my way" of learning songs and language. It's been tough. Lots of trial & error. In April, a friend of mine, an 'olapa, showed me the way she worked on learning the mele that she uses for hula. It was so simple--like doing a vocabulary list in middle school or high school English classes. My original thought: that's cool, but it's too similar to a method that I HATED when I was in school. There's got to be something better...

But...

On Monday, I found myself struggling with a project that I'm working on. I couldn't seem to get started. I was feeling completely overwhelmed. And then I thought of Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD and how I needed to stop. And breathe. And take one song at a time. One word at a time.

And...

It was amazing! Not only did I learn the lyrics, but the song CAME TO LIFE! It's been so fantastic! And so addicting! I've started learning a lot more songs now that they are truly "singing" for me. Not a great thing for my OCD, but I've been blissed out. What a nice change from feeling overwhelmed and "stuck" for so long.

So that's where I am this Wednesday morning. Still in CRAM mode. But loving it instead of dreading it. And that's pretty great.

Happy Wednesday!