Sustaining the long note
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 03.28.25
Every other Friday, I share 5 things to consider. On the Fridays between, I mix things up. This is a 5 Things Friday.
GM! ☕️
Quick housekeeping: I’m taking a newsletter vacation in early April and will return to your inbox on April 18. (Clients—I’ll be OOO the week of March 31 and back at my desk on April 7.) Rested and ready!
Here are this fortnight’s 5 things to consider:
Building on last week’s ode to rest, I’ve been learning about staggered breathing, a technique that enables choirs and ensembles to sustain extended notes by breathing in turns. Composer Eric Whitacre explains that, for performers and audiences alike, “A breath becomes as important as the information before it.”
“So, take a breath. The rest of the chorus will sing. The rest of the band will play. Rejoin so others can breathe. Together, we can sustain a very long, beautiful song for a very, very long time.” - Aimee Van Ausdall, via The Choir Project
Related: Mindfulness teacher Jack Kornfield discussed balancing the inner and outer work of change on his most recent Heart Wisdom podcast, “When to Sit, When to Serve.”
For folks who like a challenging read: Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse is tough and at times grim. This book does not flinch when it comes to climate crisis and the violence against people and planet that led us here. I appreciate that, and I admire Ghosh’s determination to advance empathy, inter-species listening, and a movement that “unmutes the planet”—all in the face of powerful global structures that we must, against odds, transform. As you might expect, this book teaches A LOT about colonialism, geopolitics, and, yes, the humble nutmeg.1
I do recommend this book! (But prepare yourselves.)
Good list:
Graphic by George Stern, via Center for Creative Leadership.
This is a lovely insight on friendship (and it speaks to the layered relationships that make every group a delicate ecosystem):2
“If, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but ‘A’s part in C,’ while C loses not only A but ‘A’s part in B.’ In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.
Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him ‘to myself’ now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.3 Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves.
- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves4
ICYMI, last week I wrote a silly rhyme with a serious premise: Even in challenging times, it is good to rest and have fun.
Thank you for reading! This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 To support it, you can upgrade to a paid subscription, share this post, or engage my services. You can learn more about my work at jenniferlphillips.com.
Peace,
Jenny
P.S. beach me will miss you, but I’ll be back in your inbox on April 18 👇🏼
P.P.S. is this something to try while I’m away? 😉
Thank you to Nicole Diroff at The BTS Center and Blair Nelson at Waterspirit for leading this book study. These topics are unwieldy and emotionally fraught, and it helped me immensely to read and discuss with kindred spirits.
Big love to my friends and pham. WE SHOULD REALLY GET TOGETHER SOON. 💞
Charles and Ronald refer to C.S. Lewis’s pals and fellow writers, Charles Williams and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Lewis goes on to make a theological point that this relational quality is also how we come to understand god, whose infinite qualities are refracted in some new way through every person we encounter (and, I would add, all nature).