Crafty Me

It’s been a year since I curated the show Foraged Roots. A group show of four ladies out of which two were my dear students and another a lovely artist friend. On this weekend going through the shots I reflected a little.
It happens to me often. I am asked am I still doing art. My reply is a civil yes, I am. Here I shall elaborate a little about me and my art. Over the years people might have noticed that I have stopped participating in art fairs and all the numerous exhibitions that an artist’s finds themselves invited to participate in. No no, this is not about the organizers and their business model. To each their own. This is more about me and my personal journey.
Yes, there was a point I was doing too many exhibitions and participating in too many art related activities. I was feeling the burn out and I decided to take a deliberate break from it all. It meant a lot of thinking and rethinking. I started spending more time with myself and my thought processes. I did more of experimentation in mediums and techniques. It was a great break from the pressure of creating constantly. Yes, there is a pressure to create for full time artists as this is our livelihood. For those in a regular job I do not expect you to fathom art and art being a career but trust me it is a career and one that we artists do take very seriously. Imagine just imagine how boring your corporate world would be without all the colour and the much-needed conversation we allow you all.
Coming back to me and my journey. I took that break and studied and taught art. My students who come home to learn stayed with me on this journey and never once asked me why I was not exhibiting. Love them for that. I did some open houses to just stay afloat and make some sales. It was nice to see that people did turn up just to connect and see what I have been up to. I did a couple of exhibitions in which my work was selected to be represented.  That did feel good. Not having to pay to participate and instead get paid for the sales. Some other projects, designing and the kind kept creeping up keeping me afloat. And then lo and behold one morning I decided it’s time for me to go back to the wage earner work force after a 17-year hiatus. I must admit it did feel strange at first and so much learning and unlearning to do in the process.
The best part about the job is it allowed me a lot of creative space and designing too. So, in that respect I was still creating every day hands on. Yet every time I got a chance, I painted, drew, played with colours. In fact, the space that it all came from was a free space without the pressures or the need to sell. That itself is a liberating factor. And of course, happy things happen when the state of mind is free and happy.
I am now working on another art project which will be time consuming and exhaustive in the months to come and this is outside the job scope so will be on spare time and my ways of giving back to the society through my art.
Apart from this I am also happily looking into my state of being, my mind and creating from the core of who I am. I am essentially a naughty observer and I am bringing some of that naughty self in my art. A big shift from who I used to be in my artworks. They were always commentaries and were serious in tone. So contrary to who I am as a person. Yes, for those of who know me socially can vouch that I can single handily keep a party entertained. It has been a fun journey of understanding the self and then extending that to the artistic expression in the last few years. Am I happily creating? Yes! Am I creating with an objective to showcase? Not sure! I live my life far more spiritually then I used to earlier. I do not chase anything. If things are right for me, they will happen. Meanwhile I can continue my crazy observations and keep doing what keeps me happy and motivated. Art heals the body and the mind and while the health took a beating early this year it was my art and my meditation that helped me get back on to track. So here’s to more naughty observations.

 

icloud Goddess

Selfie 

 

Recyling My Thoughts

Its been a while that I have taken to expressing. Loads has happened since I last typed thoughts. Personalities have died, Oscars were won, battles fought, treaties signed, economies grown or shrunk, babies were born, some more animals were probably the last of their species, wardrobes were either expanded or shrunk, the planet was raped some more, the land fills are got fuller and our mind continued to collect clutter.

Yah all the above you want to shrug off. However, can we shrug it off? Can we not assume responsibility for all our decisions that are making the planet one huge landfill? I keep asking myself these questions. As an artist who recently got converted to 9 to 5 slogger, I am often confused about the personal decisions that most of us make.

1.       December saw me without my housekeeper for a few days. Instead of choosing the plastic plate route, I continued to use ordinary dishes and choose washing over disposables, as I saw it a great way to make everyone at home contribute to house work. Needless to say, the kids did not enjoy it but it was school hols and they learnt some skills in domestic handling.

2.       I bring yoghurt to work for breakfast with a fruit on days I can manage to do so. I was getting the market brand although at home we do make fresh yoghurt. Made the change to bringing fresh homemade yoghurt in a box with fruits chopped in it. My helper was adding the plastic spoon; got her to quit that habit and I bring a steel spoon which I wash and bring back home.

3.       I have often wondered this entire process of art making and artists screaming the most, for the environment is quite hypocritical. My current time schedule and mind frame allows me for just some drawings. With less I say more. I feel less and less the need for paints and glues and other toxic material that add more rubbish to the environment. I mean let’s face it, how many are buying art. So why bother. If its just an expression a drawing suffices and a water colour sometimes to express some notion of fluid colours.

4.       My birthday is around the corner. I have too many clothes and I do not even wear most of them. So, another growing up factor. No need to shop for the heck of shopping.

5.       Meanwhile at the workplace, slowly trying to poison minds into the more environmentally friendly way. It’s a long road ahead especially for local companies, to break away from their age-old norms of business first and looking into immediate profit, over planet gain. The road ahead is long and arduous. Meanwhile I am equipped with my mind and wagging tongue. The pencil though weaker than the pen is easily erased, but the paper can be re-used. Ha ha Gotchya!! Enjoy this artwork below on the current mind space, while I continue to contemplate. 

Foraged Roots

Displacement, migration, borders create a certain need to locate and search for a bygone time and space. As global citizens of today most of us have lived in more than one country having moved to mingle, circulate, create, survive and move on to the next space. When, in this constant spatial movement we attains a dizziness, we seek to connect to our roots, the core identity of our existence. Foraged Roots is that experiment to understand an artists’s co-relation with roots, severed or otherwise.

Joyotee, a practicing artist in Singapore for 17 years has curated in this show, Foraged Roots, an exhibition of four artists and their continuous understanding of their current search of their past”

These artists, are currently placed in Singapore, where the dimensions of time converge them into a collective study in Foraged Roots. Supernormal is the space Joyotee needed to put this show together. Supernormal is in Kreta Ayer, the shores on which Singapore, grew, developed and evolved. It is a space small enough to question, the proximity and boundaries and yet the lack of gallery rails and the contemporary display setting made it the right space for these nomads to converge. This is a place that invites anything but normal. Hanging displays from the ceiling to the floor and glass wall displays, Joyotee wants to put forth these talented women and their practices through the underlying weave that binds them all.

Paroma Ray, a trained lawyer, turned language teacher, a mixed media artist, an avid traveler, an obsessive coffee drinker and a young mom of three kids, started her journey with art by learning from Joyotee, since 2014. Paroma, is a profound old soul, a witty observer of society and its pressures. Through art she has unraveled a world of possibilities, letting go of all her inhibitions and she is ever thirsty to expand her understanding of new media and expression. Paroma made Singapore her home in 2012.. Paroma says, “My work for Foraged Roots is personal. My works have led me to examine my belief in me, being a rootless person, looking at my own roots being stuck in time”.

Georgia’s fascination with textiles began as a child on her Grandmother’s knee.  Fabric and fibre have been an integral part of her life. A few years ago, she began incorporating fibre into her art. What began as an experiment has become a driving force in her work. She stresses that working with fibre has such a rich association with life and sees it as a metaphor for the linearity of life. Altering the canvas through cutting and stitching creates new tensions and replicates the changes that happen to us as we go through in life. Georgia, who is here on her second stint in Singapore, arriving this time in the year 2012 says, “Foraged Roots, is the thread itself which binds me to my roots.  Using fibre to represent my personal journey directly connects me to all the women in my family who work with fibre, and with cultures with strong fibre traditions”.

Nivedita, grew up mostly in Singapore, making it her home in the year 1999. She was gifted with an innate affinity towards colors since childhood which took form and shape under the tutelage of Joyotee in 2013 when she began understanding herself and her language of expression. Soon after she had her first public exhibit in Shangrila, Singapore, later also displaying at World Art Dubai 2016. Nivedita loves working with children and has taught kids while she stayed in Dubai, between 2015 and 2016.  While Nivedita aspires to take the bold and wild colours of her palette and bring it to a future in Art therapy, her personal relation to Foraged roots is an introspection into her genetic make-up. In her work she explores a correlation between her immediate roots through the symbolism of grand mother as a chief matriarch and the distance of time, space and enforced family roots. 

Tamara a trained fashion Designer from Spain, and a web and graphic designer from Israel, was born and raised for a good part in Russia. Today she calls Singapore her home. Tamara equates a move in geographical location to a new birth and she believes the Singapore has helped her connect to Foraged Roots. She states, “It is a great and challenging opportunity to explore this subject as a component in one’s stability, sense of belonging or identity.  I’ll never stop asking myself what the roots are, in order to define who I really am. 

This universal question of “who I am” and “where am I going”, with baggage of roots and memories may not be answered for most, but an introspection of the subject does bring along, a lot of different perspectives. Foraged Roots seek those answers and perhaps raises more questions on identity and our personal and collective journeys. 

Foraged Roots

Opening Reception 

25th May 2018

6 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

26th to 27th 12 to 7 p.m. 

@

Super Normal 

333, Kreta Ayer Road, 
#03-20, Singapore 080333

Your Ordinary Travelogue ….or so….

Running…moving….speed…..keep going don’t stop….sea of humanity….myriad emotions, feelings, people, relations, complications, Judgement!

Automatic, not my mode on the Nikon body. My own thoughts. My Mind, My Life. Auto mode. Just do, just function. Breathe. Do. Do Breathe. Eat, Observe, Do, Watch, Judge….no judge we mustn’t. STOP…..go back….good subject, zoom in……focus…..now pan on the biker. Observations. Now blank….Just do…..click click click …..lets click. Precision, zoom in. Sadness, filter, disgust, hide, smile, travel shot…Tick its done. Observe….happy, hmmmmm, for now. Shots are good.

Shibuya moments transpired.

 

Tiredness, sleep, awake, food, Delicious lemon pie…….life is good. Room…..observations. Read….more observations…….Lets go out Beautiful Sunshine. Social media…Shut Up once and for all….Out for a break!!

Walk, see, click….not so clicky ……..still click……love the weather, vanity, I look good….check out lens person reflection, yes good. !5 years later. Loving the space, the eclectic sense. Observe observe some more. No hashtags, no words…..just be. More words, more weapons, more….. Ah beautiful lines. Loving the lines. Love this city. Bow, bag checked, arigatou gozaimasu…..Walk in explore….Ticket…..nothing familiar, no more stroller, just my camera and me. My baggage, my thoughts. Stop already. Does it matter where they are from. Here just like you. Fancy camera……can’t afford that. Time…..loads on my hand…..explore…..see….love the colours, the weather. I want this moment to freeze…..awww babies…..adorable….not mine…..don’t have to take care of them, even better. School kids... Fun days...Gone days. Smile move on. 

Oh these stone walls. Witness to a lot. Beautiful, so well kept…I love this city….I love their aesthetic sense….I have evolved, no! I have eyes now. Different ones. Looks nothing like before. No resemblance. That’s ok no?

Walk, click, click walk. Observe. Make a picture! Make a Picture!...Too much stress How about I don’t. Just breathe. Sit, observe. Just be. Lovely weather. Fall colours. Just see. Deep inhalations. Long exhalations. Sun going down on me. No words. Just me and experience. No pictures.

Later in the evening, Ginxa, Kimono, I’m done. I need dinner. A fun dinner. Hot chocolate and sweet cheese tart. I love. More dinners like these. Check the waist line. Who needs it.

New day, up early. New excitement. More pictures. Beautiful location. Just opening. Is this where it is. Apprehension. Will I make some shots? Do I have to? Shops not yet opened. Loving the quiet morning air. The buzz has not yet begun. Less touristy. Just burst of colours. Bright sky, cold day, my Nikon. Me in auto mode. Let’s go…..click click click……an hour elapsed. A quiet moment. I bow down. Sanity….no wait. A quiet moment. Back to click click click. Here, there, no look there. I posed. Partner clicked. Vanity…oh yeah…loving it. Bad angle, good angle. Who cares!! 30 second fb fame. Hungry…Breakfast? Let’s eat.

Let’s go, more pictures. Let’s flow. Mt Fuji beckons. 15 years ago…memory flashes…no view…just clouds. Will I see you this time. I meditate. I pray. You appear. First glimpse…far far away. I breathe. Please stay. You did. We reached. Beautiful cold lake Town. Loving it. OMG this is heaven, or something like it. Dump bags lets go. OOOooooo the colours, the crowd. Where are they coming from. So many of them. Fall festival. Me… you…. all of us here. Click….selfie sticks. Vanity….oh gawd why here. Judgement creeping in. Stop. This lil bridge, you me and Fujisan. Thank you. Gratitude. Quick eye exchange…need a quiet spot. Can’t do this

Walk, explore, Found it. My spot. With Boatman. His shack. Quiet jetty. Closed for the evening. Me you and jetty and the Glorious Mountain. Stands tall. Evening light splendour. Bathing in the light. Me you and Fuji all cleansed. Precious. Let’s breathe. Hold it still. Can this be forever. Coffee, yes please. Coffee with the best view. Not so hot, so what! Ducks. Quack. Brrrr…..cold Brrrr….click we must.

Night shots… freezing cold. Can’t feel my nose. Average shots ….a memory created. For whom. Me me me…..I need memories. Me in auto mode. The chatter it won’t stop. I don’t want words. #nowordsplease. Just breathe. Done...cant shoot sunrise…rains forecast. Tired legs, strained shoulders….doing a mental dance. Yippeee no hike. Thanks to Hotel owner guy, who kindly offered to take us. Nice fella. Good looking too. But so happy can sleep in. Tired feet. I wake nonetheless….5 a.m. crazy winds, the rains. Sleep.

Breathe, breakfast with the best view ever. Serenity this is it. A fresh snow dust. Its clearing. More pictures. Oooo these colours. Collect, gather, throw on canvas kinda yummy colours. They are coming. Make more pictures…..we do. Ah well….lets do the Botu (Silly touristy feel) Flip, Smile, Flash the teeth. My jowl… your head cropped…re-do. Ok Okay….lets go. Whirlwind of a trip. Head buzzing. Is it the cold. The pace…the space. Its me. Auto mode slow down. Pace slow down. Happy. Content. Gratitude. Feeling it. Ready to go back.

Eat. Hunger pangs they come.

Gun on the door. So what. Let’s enter. Follow me. My intuition rules. Sign language. Yes can do vegetarian. Back of the room. Speechless. Zen room. Zen view. Couldn’t ask for better. Breathe, Eat, experience…..overwhelmed. Senses fused. Me, you, blended. This view. This artful food. This Zen mood. Camera in switched off mode. Set aside. Words cease. Let’s be. Breathe. Breathe….Long deep breaths. Let me be. Sooooooooo……………………………………………….hmmmmmmmmmmm

I’m home.

The above is my experience abridged into a stream of consciousness mode. I however do want to recommend two places. Firstly, the place we stayed in Lake Kawaguchi. Amazing view from the home, but it’s the hospitality and the warmth that has me feeling so much love for the place. The Weekend Shuffle, Lakeside Inn, Lake Kawaguchi.

 Another accidental discovery was our last lunch at Fuji. A beautiful Zen space with minimalist décor and the same aesthetic touch brought to the food. Lovely couple run venture, and a self-taught chef who can give a Michelin-star chef, some insecurities. Toyoshima near the train station at the Lake Kawaguchi, named after chef, Masaya Toyoshima. Don’t get intimidated by the gun handle on the door. 

Work In Progress :I Am

I think, I observe, so I am. I am. Two words that seem so harmless can take on so many different connotations, once we add a third word. Humour me here with my rambling observations.

I am Beautiful, I am Gorgeous, I am Famous, I am Powerful, I am Liked, I am Loved, I am Knowledgeable, I am Rich, I am Critical (in whichever way you want to interpret this), I am Important, I am ……….. and on an on…… I am an Observer, I am Alive.

Yes I am alive. I am kicking. I am collecting my experiences. I am living my life. I am Happy. Or so I think.

I am and I was. I was immersed in the doldrums of festivities and literally so. The Durga Puja that I attend here in Singapore arranges for a Dhakia (a drum specific to the West Bengal called Dhaak, and the player is reffered to as the Dhakia) to fly in from India. All that noise, colourful visuals, socializing and eating has left my senses a little blurred. I am still groping and getting back to the grind. Beautiful as those days were there were thoughts that were running through my head. I shared on my social media wall the significance of the 9 goddesses to the night nights of festivities namely Navratri. Well if you are not well versed with Durga Puja and Navratri I would suggest Wikipedia or just turn on the news feed of your Indian friends in Singapore and you will know exactly what I mean.

So while the Goddess was here for Nine days, all the Devi’s were slaying their wardrobe demons and out in their fan-fare to show their ultimate victory avatars. I was partaking in the rituals of enjoyment and merriment I simultaneously continued, with my routines of Pranayama, SKY, and Sadhana. Longer Sadhana’s during this time as I found that the meditation was far deeper. Must be a reason why this festival and Shivratri are a must for a person to reflect on for their spiritual growth. I am not going to go into the scientific reasons behind these two festivals being so high on the energy factors. However, what I will touch on is the fact that both have a cultural connotation and are celebrated all over India in different ways. As an ancient culture dependent on agriculture it does not come as a surprise that much of these rituals were to do with either harvesting or laying the ground down for new crops. Celebration makes it easier to bring the community together and adding a moralistic tale too helps.

On a more personal level, we do harvest and lay down the way for new. And this happens in our body everyday with the cells that drop and make way for the new cells. Our body is the biggest example of the Brahman, the Universal existence and the supreme consciousness. Everything is cyclical and is happening. All is here to stay. The soul the body they all continue their journey. The energy assumes different forms but it continues to exist in new avatars.

The addition to all of this is our own thought process. The Demons are within our own thought process as are the Goddess that slay them too. It is this constant observation of our own thought process and how victorious we have been in vanquishing our demons that determines our own growth and happiness. As I grope with the daily threads of my life, I am returning to work and I found myself working on a collaborative work that will enhance my skill in patience but hopefully will also be meaningful to the target group. Constantly while working on this I remind myself to observe my thoughts, my actions, my demeanour, and my choice of words. They are not always in keeping with my expectations. However, I remain, a work in progress. Meanwhile I continue to plan for this project as I realise “I Am” (Sohum). 

Work In Progress: Meditation in Motion

The father of Modern Electricity, Nikola Tesla was not just that.  A century later the world is embracing this genius and what he understood is the very basis of the universe, “Vibration”.

Interesting to note, this unique minds relation with Vedic knowledge and his close interaction with none other than Swami Vivekananda. It is after meeting Swamiji, that Tesla began using terms like “Akasha” and the concept of luminiferous ether to describe the source, existence and construction of matter. Tesla’s use of Vedic terminology provides a key to understanding his scientific views of electromagnetism and the nature of the universe. Thanks to Tesla today scientists world over accept the universe is made up of energy. To know more about Tesla and his fantastic revelations all you have to google is this series of numbers 3,6,9.

My reason to name the said display of work this year 3,6,9 was not a random choice. I recognise that I am also responding to the vibrations in and around me. My current vibrations had me think and re think about these universal mathematical patterns. Patterns which are pr- historic and are found in all pre-historic art, and in different parts of the world, from different cultures and spaces and dating way back to any formal way of religion. Yes, I am talking of the patterns we very often find embed in nature. Be it the Fibonacci sequence of the spiral, or the formation of a Yantra.

A Yantra is the yogic machine of a visual instrument that serves in meditation. It is the microcosm of the universe and hence it is the body while Mantra in the mind. Through sound vibration experiments, scientist have seen the formation of these Yantras. Atoms and Molecules reverberate to these sounds and create certain shapes. The universe has left its blueprint through the shapes it surrounds us in nature and through the vibrations it engulfs us with. With the daily chaos of material life, we have drowned these sounds and vibrations.

Recently I found myself very intrigued to the mathematical, geometric patterns. Intrigued by the Yantra world we inhabit, I started doing my own research and I am still working on it and while I do so many other revelations keep coming my way. I have also been deeply interested in the Kali Yantra as a concept. The term Kali comes from the word Kaala. She is the female consort or the embodiment of all the Shiva stands for, the universal model of change. Humans by nature are averse to change and hence fear it. It’s this concept of fear that over centuries gave her a physical fiery form and various iconography and mythological references along with it. However, Kali is first and foremost a concept. She is best visualized in the form of a Yantra, as change and the universe’s model of change should be an abstraction of sorts. Its nature should be defined and hence should have the clear angles and edges of a geometric pattern. As religions took shape and form so did the concept and hence she became a female with dark powers of Tantra and all kind of symbolism attached to her physical embodiment as Kali. While I do not negate the cultural belief of this form and the gathering of communities to celebrate the female prowess, I find myself inclining more to a shape I find easy to meditate with. Hence it has been very satisfying to find her in various geometric patterns, through various tools and techniques. Through my limited sensibilities, I have tried to meditate upon the formless one through, the formations my mind creates. It’s a journey I began and it shall continue for I remain a work in progress. Meditation in Motion continues….3, 6, 9……

Work in Progress : Sing me a Song

Are you one of those Bathroom singers as well? I think most of us are, No? There is a certain pleasure in singing in the shower. Maybe it’s that complete feeling of freedom, privacy and uninhibited sense of cleansing that makes you feel connected to your most natural state of being one with the universe.

Once done and we wear those societal layers after drying ourselves, we then stop the singing and we start feeling the shrinking. Yes, if you notice the reason most of us do sing is because it creates an expansion within our hearts. You feel open, free, happy and liberated. Then why don’t we continue to do it the rest of the day. Why do inhibitions creep in. Why the fear of judgement on being bad or tone deaf singers, make us completely put breaks on what we love doing? I have often wondered.

Masaru Emoto in his book the The Hidden Messages of Water, describes how water reflects sound vibration that it is exposed to. The universe is vibration. It came into existence through vibration and hence we continue to vibrate on frequencies. Some frequencies heal us more than others. In depth documentation reveals through photographs how the molecular structure of water changes after being exposed to different sounds. Positive messages produce beautiful pleasing structures and negative stimuli creates less coherent forms. Our body is made up of 60% water and hence we are very reactive to the sound stimuli as well in the universe. It is difficult to conduct such experiments on our own body fluids and hence what we can do is conduct the experiment of feeling and observation of our own breath patterns.

The act of just closing the eyes and singing the praise of the divine has a very healing and magical feeling of comfort and expansion in the heart region. Notice in a group when singing for the divine, you close your eyes, and block all connection to your physical awareness of your existence and you start connecting with your inner being. Hence you drop the consciousness of “Am I sounding too high pitched, am I in Sync” and other such thoughts just drop. You sway with happy rhythm of a sun flower swaying in the breeze totally feeling the inner fields of gold blossom within you. The warmth of that gold glistens every pour in your body and you come away from such a gathering feeling rejuvenated and glowing. (The best facial if you ask me: P; try it before your next party ;)

The contrary observation will be the feeling and contraction of the heart region when damaging words are heard or exchanged. That sound vibration would create a reaction of shrinking and feeling small. This creates a chain reaction in vibrations and sensations in the body. I will not go into the reactive nature of such vibration. Let me stay focussed on discussing the beauty of singing and singing with sheer joy. (I have a tendency to digress…. So, help me stay on track).

I grew up amongst a family who prides itself on being very rhythmic and artistically evolved. My grand father, a doctor by profession was also a singer who used to be on the road for months for his singing expeditions. My father an artist, my uncle a writer, my eldest sister vocally trained by some great masters and although she doesn’t sing regularly she still can put every one into a stunned silence when she does. What I am trying to say, is that, there is that since childhood there is that under current pressure to be good in whatever you do. And I grew up thinking singing is not what I do. Trust me I had my reasons for believing so. I had sisters who sounded like cuckoo birds who sang so beautifully and I just lost my confidence to even do bathroom singing.

It was much later on, during road trips and with huge expansive beautiful landscapes I found myself breaking into tunes and everyone in my company enjoying it. One such instance was my 6 month daughter who was not taking very well to a sudden rule of a car seat, when we changed continents. Bring a born fighter she was putting up a tough resistance and she used to scream through the entire long 2 hour drives that we used to undertake. It was one such a lovely start to a weekend morning and we set out on a road trip and while she started her riyaaj I started mine. She tried to keep up and soon her wailing became rhythmic and after a while she started humming along with me. After 15 minutes of me singing away she was in stunned silence with a huge smile on her face. Funny to note it was after this that she stopped her car seat resistance and even started enjoying these drives.

Sixteen years on, and she now is quite melodious herself and is a bathroom singer but prides herself as more of a dancer and a writer. My son is like my father. He relaxes himself through humming. He hums whenever he is happy and whenever his fingers can’t reach a gadget. He is the most zen person around me. He also lives a very uninhibited life, and does whatever he is asked to with great ease, even if it is dancing in a crowd.

So, coming back to singing and feel good factor it brings in you; what I am trying to say is we should sing, sing in praise, sing in happiness, sing for when we want to feel happiness even if the day is making us feel otherwise. Singing is food for the soul, like breath is to your body. Who knows regular singing may even bring in some great tunes. I am off to sing my Sunday tunes, you do so too.