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I’ve been mossified…

Posted byMezzoid Voice StudioPosted inUncategorized
For the last few weeks, motivation has been missing from my life as far as getting my new residence in order, especially my new studio. Consequently, I have not been marketing myself as a teacher. Or a singer.

I blame some of it on this wrist injury, which I am pleased to announce will not require hand surgery. And part of it is just sloth. Which is not like me. I’m usually pretty engaged and hands on. But it’s happened a few times before, and usually it precedes a period of intense productivity.

I feel like “if a rolling stone gathers no moss,” I am but a large unwieldy boulder festooned with mossy growth.

Which sounds kind of gross and slimy, but then I found this picture and realized that moss isn’t all that bad.

In fact, moss has a lot of uses, as I discovered. (You might call this research further procrastination and a distraction from the tasks I really need to accomplish, but bear with me for a moment.)

Sphagum moss is a component in peat, which is a fuel. It is also used for its healing properties, to grow things in, in smoking malt for whiskey (!), to put out fires, as insulation, and for crop improvement (i.e., fertilizer). Spanish moss is used as decoration.

Moss is a sign of fecundity. What is fecundity? It is

1. The quality or power of producing abundantly; fruitfulness or fertility.
2. Productive or creative power: fecundity of the mind.
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fecundity)

So, rather than disparaging myself for nesting or being slothful, I prefer to think of myself as fueling up for what I have to do, for healing myself (both the hand injury and other things we don’t need to get into right now), to grow, possibly to put out fires (see “things we don’t need to get into right now”), and to fertilize, so that I will produce abundantly and creatively.
And besides, while I always thought “a rolling stone gathers no moss” meant that someone who kept moving did not stagnate, the actual original meaning of the phrase was that a person in constant motion lacks roots and consequently does not cultivate new ideas, new experiences, new culture, new responsibilities.
I’m embracing all those things. Maybe not right now, but I will. 

(As soon as Mercury moves out of retrograde, which I think is tomorrow.) 

Published by Mezzoid Voice Studio

Christine Thomas-O'Meally, a mezzo soprano and voice teacher currently based in the Baltimore-DC area, has performed everything from the motets of J.S. Bach to the melodies of Irving Berlin to the minimalism of Philip Glass. As an opera singer and actress, she has appeared with companies such as Charm City Players, Spotlighters Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Theater of Northern Virginia, Opera North, the Washington Savoyards, In Tandem Theatre, Windfall Theater, The Young Victorian Theater of Baltimore, and Skylight Opera Theatre. She created the role of The Woman in Red in Dominick Argento’s Dream of Valentino in its world premiere with the Washington Opera and Mary Pickersgill in O'er the Ramparts at its world premiere during the Bicentennial of Battle of Baltimore at the Community College of Baltimore County. Other roles include Mrs. Paroo in Music Man, Mother Abbess in Sound of Music, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, both Hansel and the Witch in Hansel & Gretel, and many roles in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. Her performance as the Housekeeper in Man of La Mancha was honored with a WATCH award nomination. Ms. Thomas-O'Meally received an M.M. in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She regularly attends master classes and workshops in both performance and vocal pedagogy, and is certified in all three Levels of Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method. Her students have performed on national and international tours of Broadway productions, at prestigious conservatories, and in regional theater throughout the country.

One thought on “I’ve been mossified…”

  1. Ah, the great cycle of life. Sometimes we go underground to mine for jewels, then we come to the surface to share and do. Just like nature, right? In this day and age of do! busy! market myself! Be a product! you have to have some balls to be yourself in all your human-ness. Ball away, Christine!

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