1. Hello

Welcome to my first foray into the world of blog creation. I haven't read many, either, although I do spend the majority of my life online (often as "alto artist," which seemed appropriate here, too). This blog will deal with the remaining minority of my life, the part that seems to count the most.

This collection of words is called "on chanting" because that activity, chanting Torah, has made my head spin over the last few years. The resulting vertigo has sent me stumbling down a path of opened and naked fragments of mind, heart, voice, awe, and gratitude, all begging to be addressed, fueled and solved. But I have so much more to learn before I can even approach my questions. Sometimes, standing in front of the congregation, I stop and shut my eyes and remind myself that this is really my life and not a wonderful waking dream. Then I come home to reality, the deadline on Monday, how to pay the bills, the guy who doesn't call back, and despair that I will never combine the two worlds. I need to know how to bring that joy and abundance into the rest of my life. I hope that writing about this experience will help me understand.

I've tried to put these words together before, but they failed me. Well, really, I was afraid of committing to them. I'm hoping that a paragraph or two every day or so, with the world watching, will help me do better.