By now you have likely heard of Susan Boyle, the “frumpy,” innocent Scottish woman with the angelic voice who stunned and enraptured the British talent show audience and judges, including Simon Cowell, with her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserable. The YouTube video has been viewed over 19 million times as of this writing (3 million views occurred in the time it took me to write this blog entry).
Everyone’s talking and writing about it. Suzanne Falter-Barnes of Get Known Now writes of the lessons from a marketing platform perspective; how one can be found in this world when one has the courage to be visible and the talent to match.
The Herald printed an article by Collette Douglas Home, about Boyle from the perspective of what we value and what is truly recognition-worthy.
I have been exploring the enormity of the impact this video had on me personally. What am I feeling when I watch the video and cry? I’ve always cried when I’ve heard that song both in and out of context. Sitting next to my mother during a live performance, I cried for her lost dreams as well as my own, especially my fear of betraying my own dreams. Yet, I am familiar enough with my tears and my emotions to recognize this as something very deep and very cleansing.
A friend says she thinks it is Boyle’s triumph, the dream achieved, that brings on our tears. Yes and we have witnessed many people achieving their long sought-after dreams without this massive an impact. Is it because she is an underdog? Is it because we saw her as frumpy, odd, unsophisticated and made the assumption that talent can’t possibly live in someone like that and then got a huge awakening? Yes and…
As we continued our discussion, that same friend, who is a seasoned astrologer, proposed that it was the right time, right place, right person; a conjunction of events. This brought on an insight that resonated for me, one that explained what I was feeling in my body, mind, spirit and heart.
I’m suggesting that, through Boyle and by way of this video (edited exactly as it was), we are receiving a massive healing of our collective and individual shadow through direct transmission. What is direct transmission? Very simply, it is receiving learning, consciousness, and/or healing through vibration/energy rather than the usual channels. It is what people experience when they sit with a guru or other spiritual teacher.
Watching and listening to Susan Boyle sing so beautifully in the face of scorn and mockery, our unspoken shame for imperfection (of appearance, of success, etc) as mirrored in our material world, is healed. We are at one and the same time faced with being both the mocked and the mocker. We recognize ourselves as both the one who fears isolation and the one who isolates others. Music, especially the human voice, is a perfect vehicle for healing. Boyle has the heart behind the voice to deliver.
After so many years of living with the tyranny of perfect looks and perfect talent perfectly packaged…
After so many years of looking at our faces and our bodies in the mirror and deriding ourselves for not being more beautiful and youthful, fighting our bodies at the gym and abusing them in the surgeon’s office…
After so many years of deifying youth and scorning age, assuming that, after a certain time in life, our dreams and thus, our usefulness, are no longer viable…
After so many years, by way of Susan Boyle and this video, we have received a healing message; a re-membering of our true soulful beauty through direct transmission. We are also forgiven for forgetting.
This healing is not about becoming famous. It is not about praising the spiritual and denying the material. It is about how we polarize the two and how out of balance humanity has become. We are spiritual and human, we live in a world that embraces both. This healing is as universal as it is individual. It is a transmission of forgiveness for all the ways we have judged ourselves and others. It is a healing of shame for our bodies, our lack of perfection, our lost years and all the times we lacked courage. This healing is ours, if we are willing to receive it.
A transmission of healing is a gift and can only be received if we open to it. When our tears fall as we listen to Susan; when we smile and laugh for her victory, when our heart and chest swell with pride for her courage, we might ask ourselves: “What is the shadow within me that is being healed in this moment?” and receive that light and love. There is nothing more we need to do to avail ourselves of this amazing gift that has been given to all of us as it spreads around the globe at lightning speed.
Susan Boyle is both a channel of this transmission and a human being with a big voice and a big dream. It is a reminder that we are all channels of love, we are love. We all have a unique voice and a dream. I don’t know about you, but when I go about my day today, I’m going to notice all the angel-humans around me. I’m going to remain curious and open to the question: What is the unique expression and gift offered by everyone who crosses my path today? What is their, and my, unique message to the world? What will I open to receive and what will I have the courage to give?
Thank you, Susan Boyle!
all words and images copyright (C) April 2009, Kathy Loh, all rights reserved
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