Masterpiece (poem)

Masterpiece

You may not think it 

But you are 

A work of art 

That is so unique

All your bits

That make you up 

You are a masterpiece 

Of questions comments 

Disregard

Of love and follow through

All the pigments 

Thrown on top 

The canvas that is you

You’re all the colours 

All at once 

make finger paintings 

Grey

And then sometimes 

You lighten up 

Coaxing dark away

Your full of all the pieces

Like a couloured 

Oil on canvass 

Great in your expanse

With all your

Chances handed

You are the stormy 

Clouded seas

The brightest of sky blue

Fall Into the greatest heart

The portrait that 

Is you

Don’t be fooled

By lack of trust

The doubt within the soul

The holding on

The surrender

Then the letting go

You are all the yellows

All the reds

The purples and the pinks

All the hues sewn together 

Lest your heart

It sinks

Knowing that you are 

The Maker....

Of all things that are new

Made up of all that is

This masterpiece is You

Run Away (poem)

Run Away

Within the thick

Of trying to say

What’s on your mind

And the invalidation 

Starts 

You can choose 

To listen to your heart

And run away

Run away from the holding

Of what once was

Because all the new is 

On the horizon

You can say thank you and know 

Deep down you will never be understood 

But it matters not

Now because 

You are good

You are good 

All parts of you 

Head to toes

You don’t need their love or their words

Cause you can make it 

I know that you can

You don’t need their acceptance 

In order to land

Ina spot that feels safe 

And ready to expand

You don’t need their opinion anymore 

You are growing each day 

When you grow in all ways

You don’t need to 

Runaway any more

The Great Ohio Tempest (Blog)

The Great Ohio Tempest

Just got sent this sweet pic of being on the road coming back from Memphis. We stopped in this small farming community in Ohio and the winds were gusting at breakneck speeds.

As we walked into the tiny gas station/burger joint, the door about blew right off its hinges when we entered.....everything on the counter went flying....We were met with a few sideways glances from the older gents who were occupying the booths and stools. One of them specifically could not stop eyeing up my boots.

I sat down on one of the red stools at the little bar and ordered some fries to keep us going for a few more hours. I tipped the gal behind the counter (like a good Canadian would) and we were on our way.

Before we hopped back in the truck (this pic was snapped) I took a look around and thought.....I think I could live here......fields as far as you could see.....so flat and wide you could almost see the curve of the earth....Desolate (maybe) there was something else that drew my energy to this place. There is something in me that craves the quiet alone....big spaces.....the feeling of anonymity.....

As we drove through gusty Ohio....with the truck rocking hard from the crosswind on the highway....there was some more sweet sights. The ditches and fence posts were lined with hawks that were out for an afternoon hunt. So many in number that you couldn’t ignore them. Wings outspread, gliding gracefully on the violent wind. Looking down, scouring the tall grass for their next kill. Easeful soaring in a harsh environment. They had a message for me....

“No matter how strong and violent the tempest is around you, spread out your strong wings and glide gracefully through the storm.”

And so it is.

Your Heart is King (Blog)

Home Sweet Home.......Have you ever felt like you lived 1000 lifetimes in one week? Memphis was a dream and I could not have physically made the trip without my hometowns lovin arms, or my roadie Stacey Hare!!

Your presence at the fundraiser in December ensured that I had just enough dough to cover hotel, gas, and food costs without going into debt...Amazing!! Thank You Thank You Thank You Thunder Bay!!

I was able to go down and put on a show that made my heart incredibly proud to be from Thunder Bay....I met so many lovely warm people and was a loving ambassador for the Thunder Bay Music Scene.....I have invited many people to come visit!!🤗🤗

The 44 plus hour drive was a pilgrimage and as I drove I left a bunch of old pieces of myself on the road....making room for new truth.....

THE NEW TRUTH IS....that I am so much stronger than I ever thought I could be....ever.....ever....ever.....

Sometimes there are people out there who make you believe that your whole being is not good enough....or way too much....I will eventually write more bout this all one day, and I hope to share my story with whoever wants to read about it......

Until Then...

If you can continue to create through those hard times....those times when you just don’t feel good enough.....when life has you on your knees begging for mercy....or you are so scared of doing something that you want to throw up in your mouth a little.....if you can still move forward through all of that.....you will in fact soar like an eagle.....and within that eagle....you will develop the heart of a lion......you are bigger and more beautiful than you could ever imagine. Trust me....I can see it in there....and if I can slowly and terrifyingly move myself through some of the most wild, scary times in my life....so can you....

You will soar like an eagle

You have the heart of a lion

Your heart is KING...

Post Script......this sweet hat was the only purchase I made on the entire trip.....it feels pretty fitting.....I went into the store wanting to buy an old felt blues hat.....and could not pass up this sweet baby.....

With the amount of hours driven on this trip I am starting to think I was a long haul truck driver in a past life...

New Heights and Everything In Between

So I launched my website.........then I cried, and cried, and cried......for a full two days........the reality hit hard.....because of what I am asking of myself, and what I am asking of others.......then I fell.......hard........smack dab into the center of my EGO........and wow it f$%#ing hurt bad........Truth is I am scared @$%#less......once I pressed launch......all of this reality came tumbling in through a large imaginative hole that was fashioned perfectly right above my head......and BLAM!!!!!! ON THE GROUND!!!! What the EFF was I thinking??  To drop everything that was comfortable and right......for this.....uneasy.....messy....messy

......ridiculous.....idea...... 

Now the dust has settled,  I am sufficiently shaken up and I am ready to go back to work. I thought the hard parts were already over.....baaahhhaahahahahah......I was wrong.....soooooo wrong......now the work is just beginning......

Ever since I was little music has followed me in some form or another.  Even when I tried to quit it so many times. I would just end up back in it's luscious warm arms, rolling around in its magic. I didn't understand until now how it has shaped my life and slowly guided me to this moment.  This moment when I get to call out a name, or one of the many incarnations of a name. Arley....Singer Songwriter.  

Declaring this (Singer Songwriter) is a new feeling for me and looking at it and reading it over, and over again brings my heart into my throat and shakes up everything in my body (obviously still).  I have been writing music for the last 15 years and I have finally teased up the courage to step into this incarnation fully and with a deep knowing.  I don't actually think I have a choice in the matter.  So then, here I am to share stories, to sing from my soul, and to spread some love into this world the best way I know how.  

2016 was an interesting work year for me.  In January I took a month off of my teaching studio to write.  I wanted to get some new material going, I had no particular goal in mind, I just wanted to play and let the music seep in.  A month of writing gifted me with a full album of songs. I believe I wrote 12 new pieces to add to my growing list of originals.  The rest of the year I spent working the new material and singing in performances here and there to share them with the public. I was teaching my studio still with 60 students and singing in my band Loose Cannon.....I was happy....

I realized that my songs were asking more of me than I had time to give them. I decided to scrunch my studio teaching into three intense days a week, but I would have to cut down my student list. It was my thought that I could still do it all and come out the other end with a huge chunk of time to work my craft. I was actually really wrong about this.  By late October (after playing my first house concert for Meg Sheepways Dog Paw Pottery Studio) the decision was final and I decided to strip my entire life away by shutting down my studio and quitting the band.  

Two very hard things to do.  I loved my students.....and I loved my band......but there was something else calling out to my creative soul.....and if I didn't do it now......when??

"This decision led to many long hard talks with my husband and several other people (students and bandmates). I was on my way to slowly peeling off the cloak of my regular life"

This decision led to many long hard talks with my husband and several other people (students and bandmates). I was on my way to slowly peeling off the cloak of my regular life......stepping into the unknown.  Knowing that with this decision would come sacrifice financially and emotionally in my life, as we have gone from a two income house to one.  Knowing also that quitting the band would seriously change the way I express myself and my approach to music and performance. Knowing that I would be stepping into the arena to come face to face with all of the critics.  For about three weeks I was scared shitless......and the negative internal dialogue started its well known and very old script of dubious apprehension. Who Do You Think You Are??? What If You Fail???  You Don't Even Know What You Are Doing!!! No One Is Going to Like It!.......and on and on it circled.

There were tears......There was bad communication.......There was fear.......There was scarcity thinking.......There was the thought of saying it was all a bad joke and wanting to go back to regular life........."pfffttt hahhaaaa hey guys!! it was all a joke....oh god.....like seriously what was I thinking......JOKING!!!!!!  LOLZZZZZZ"

It all went though my head over and over again on the rolodex of fear.  Doubtful questions aiming their harsh words directly at my artist heart.  After a few weeks of rolling around in the dirt of my own critical mind, a light found its way though the darkness.  What if I simply just try?  What if my intention is to share my music with an open heart?  What if all of the outcomes are none of my business? What if I don't treat this like my baby? (this idea taken from the book BIG MAJIC written by Elizabeth Gilbert)  What if I don't try to protect my work with my fragile artist soul?  What if I just see what happens? What if I do this because its is in my heart to share in this particular way?  What if I TRUST?? By allowing the light to shine through serendipitous things started to happen.  I started to meet the people who would help me with each next step.  Slowly the vision came to life and I was able to see it all coming together, bit by bit.

I took off the dark cloak and listened super hard to the small soft voice within that was calling me to come back to my center of knowing. To Come Back In.........Come Back In.......... Every time the old script tried to distract me, I was reminded to Come Back In. It was a simple invitation to slow down and center in my own heart........relying on the wisdom that has occupied the space there since the beginning of time.

"it's all going to be ok" "everything is going to be ok"

As I practiced the mindfulness of centering my body back into my heart and my breath.... it was powerful and calming. The knowing started to emerge and become more compelling than the negative self talk.  The breath became easier and lighter.  I remember in moments of conversation with my husband, when we were both in fear of the unknown my favorite phrases were "it's all going to be ok" "everything is going to be ok" the power of those two phrases surprised me. Even as I uttered them and the words fell out onto my lips.....there in the unknowingness...in the fear....they made things luminous......syrupy.....softer.....    

It has been with my husbands undying support emotionally, spiritually and monetarily, that I was able to put this project on the ground with a firm foundation. He has been my biggest supporter, rock, and the shining light of encouragement that has allowed this project to take flight and find its home somewhere out in the musical ether. 

Also with much thanks to Ian Mcleod of Backlanes Audio. who was a friend of mine during my days at the Music Department at Lakehead University.  I had, over the years, lost touch with him and somehow crossed paths with him recently at a local pub.  I told him what I was up to and he offered to be my guide and help me to record the project.  Ian has been the most integral part of the contouring, and colouring of this Album by guiding me through the recording process ease fully and helping me shape my artistic ear and feel.  Making what I originally brought in even more magical and sublime.  Not only did I gain a recording technician that I fully trust....I gained back.....a dear old friend. Ian has used his musical ear and ability to play on several of the tracks which helped me fill them out and and give them more life than I could have dreamed possible. If you are looking to record a new project Ian is your man!

What is the Project??? 

I will be launching my debut album called "Parts of Me" within the next month and I am really excited to set it free. I'm excited to see where it goes and how it changes and morphs.  I am excited to share it with anyone who will listen.  I am still a little scared.....trying not to be.....learning about how NOT to attach myself to my art, and fully let it go. Let it go so that I can continue to write, record and share my original sound and story with others.

I will be holding it with light hands over the next few months as I also embark on another adventure.  I plan on taking my one woman band on the road and will be heading out west performing house concerts along the way.  This is also way out of my comfort zone......Thunder Bay to Edmonton....Maybe out to Vancouver.....I will be traveling for about two months and will be hitting up some incredible towns and cities along the way.

It is my hope that I can rely on the sweetness of Friends, and Friends of Friends, and the Canadian people that I know and have yet to meet that their kindness and heartfelt welcomes will show me the way back home safely and with scads more writing and stories to tell.  I am excited for this adventure. 

Yet another adventure I will be undertaking is the actual Launch of my album!  It will be happening Saturday May 6th at the Branch 5 Legion at 8:00 pm.  I hope to see some supportive faces out to help cheer this local gal on! Tickets are 5$ and I will post more information on where they will be available.

So feel free to take a look around the new Website!!  Sign up for my e-mail list and I will keep you posted on all of the new and exciting things that will be happening in the upcoming months!

So now the real work begins......

 xoxoxo

With all the love in my heart

Arley

Singer Songwriter