The courses we took after retirement, now that there’s, a lot of free time on our hands, we can finally, do something we enjoy, translated…
Many years ago when I started taking yoga, the song of an Indian woman was playing, her uplifting voice had a scent of weathered in it, it’d melted away my tense heart. Ever since, I’d loved that feeling of spiritual satisfaction.
a grouip of elderly who get togehter for their shared joy of singing…photo from online…
After retirement, I had a lot of extra time, and started enjoying taking classes; three years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to Mrs. Hsia’s choir class. The choir taught us to sing using simplified musical notes, we’d learned a song a week. The teacher would describe the background of the song, taught us how to annunciate the words, the end notes, the volume, as well as other singing techniques, then, she’d taught us how to perform the song with the right emotions, then, after the class, we’d practice the songs on our own, with the tapes she’d provided for us.
The next class session when she checked our progress, she’d tell us one by one, what we did right, and what we didn’t manage well enough. And, those who’d done well received a warm encouragement, a simple, “You practiced at home”, “This song was made for you”, then, the students would be very pleased.
The ages of the classmates are past midlife, there were students who’d told the singing instructor that the songs were too hard to learn, that they’d forgotten them after class, the teacher told us, “Don’t rely on luck, you must squeeze out the time to practice your singing skills, and when you go out, play the music on a headset.” And encouraged us often, “learn slowly, forget slower.” “After you’d practiced it long enough, the songs will be yours.” “Everybody can sing, but, being able to sing well, there’s a lot of time that one needs to put into it.”
time for our choir practices again, not my photo…
Every week, we were taught, a different style of song, and slowly we’d come to understand, that the songs are the notes connected by the ups and downs of life. The instructor taught it to us, to help us stay active in the mind, to stay healthy, so we can have good singing voices.
And now, I’d learned over a hundred songs so far, from “Looking Back”, to “The End Has Come”, “A Decade”, “Red Beans”, it’s as if, I’d been led, into this tunnel of time, and managed to sing out that nostalgia, to help me change my state of mind. And all of these memories that’s already been erased by time, slowly all came back, with the passing of time, it’d become, even better.
In Mrs. Hsia’s concentrated and delicate teaching methods, I’d not only learned to enjoy what I was learning, I’d also, understood the values of life, thanks to her.
So, this is how someone stays active in the elderly years, and, having a good instructor for these recreational classes is the key, to helping the individual fall in love with the skills learned, and this instructor helped her students to get better at singing, and that, is what these individuals in midlife are in need of, something to do, and they’re, doing it well, having a fulfilling retirement life.
JUST the Unwinding of Thoughts 