I've looked at podcasts from both sides now...
... Interview with Yolanda Drewell on her Fabulous To Meet You podcast ...
Both Sides Now
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that wayBut now they only block the sun
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my wayI've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
As you probably know, I recently became a podcast host. Very DIY still; to date, I’ve released 7 solo episodes. But in the past month, I’ve encountered some personal challenges that have temporarily halted proceedings. Clouds got in my way.
Then, a wonderful ray of sun came through in the form of an invitation to guest on someone else’s podcast. It was fabulous to change things up and be the guest instead of the host. Yolanda Drewell is the founder of the Fabulosity movement. Her podcast is called Fabulous To Meet You. The episode’s an hour long. You can watch it on Youtube or listen wherever you usually prefer to cast your pods:
If you choose Youtube, and head to the comments section, you can follow along with my trail of music links to other Youtube videos and watch some of the music I mention during my chat with Yolanda. Definitely, if you can, take time to watch both sides of Joni Mitchell in 1970 and in 2022.
In the first link from 1970, you’ll see her standing alone on stage at the Isle of Wight festival as a young woman, guitar in hand, singing words of immense wisdom in a high key. In the second link, you’ll see her on a beautiful chair the opposite side of the Atlantic at a festival in the US in the summer of 2022, surrounded by so much love and respect for her epic, iconic career in music. She has not sung in public for many years for health reasons after suffering a life-threatening stroke which prevented her from continuing to create music several years ago. The singer-songwriter suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015 that left her temporarily unable to walk or talk. So this performance is an incredible treat for the audience to be in Joni’s presence. And my goodness, at the age of 79, she has such a presence. The song is slower and carries such depth of meaning in every-single-lyric.
A gravitas I think you will find extremely moving.
As a woman of a respectable age reading this, if you’re anything like me, the music and the lyrics of Both Sides Now may cause you to be drawn to reminisce about your own “dizzy dancing” younger days and how the present version of you differs from the young woman you were in the past. Then you may also imagine yourself as an older woman in the future and who you still aspire to be, do and have. When everything slows right down so you can revel in the deliciousness of all your years of wisdom.
Talking of slowing down
If you’re curious about my recent hiatus in The Joy of Gin podcast, read on…
To cut a long story short, I needed to take a break and ‘listen’ to my body and improve my balance.
Sudden vertigo and debilitating tinnitus (ringing in the ears) started suddenly in November leaving me feeling unbalanced. Making podcast recordings became a challenge and I struggled to edit sound confidently. I lost almost all of my hearing in my left ear and have now tolerated constant headaches, and ringing in both ears and have had very little sleep for a few weeks. Anyone who has ever experienced vertigo, insomnia or tinnitus themselves will know, it impacts your energy levels, mood and ability to function day to day.
ABC
My Authenticity, Balance and Creativity (the innermost ABCs I model my life on) matter to me very much. With the sudden onset of this tinnitus, it felt as though all three were suddenly gone. As I said above, clouds got in my way.
In the midst of producing the Joy series, I didn’t feel able to bring valuable content to my listeners that was authentically joyful, balanced or to my usual creative standards. Those three qualities are not usually able to be forced. You hear me, don’t you?
Anyway, as well as looking for ways to rectify things physically, I’m always one to look for the learning opportunity in the situation.
I am pleased to say I gleaned a few life lessons:
I teach about using our five human senses to improve our mindfulness, yet I suddenly needed to adapt to having only 4½ myself. This reminded me to have compassion and admiration for others with any impairment or neurodiversity. Humans experience and interact with the world around us differently; there is no one "right" way of thinking, learning, and behaving. In a reasoned, kind and tolerant environment, our differences shouldn’t be viewed as deficits.
I discovered this amazing book: Living Well With Tinnitus, by Hashir Aazh
I rediscovered and applied CBT. If you suffer from tinnitus yourself (as approx one billion people on the planet apparently do) or vertigo, hearing difficulties, ear infections or earwax issues, I invite you to reply to this email or comment below. In all my sleepless nights, I read A LOT and found some amazing resources.
I reminded myself that I am a former perfectionist and still in recovery! Producing work of a lacklustre, poor quality isn’t my style. I gave Episodes 6 and 7 my best shot, but as I struggled to both hear and think coherently around the middle of November - I knew it was time to take a pause. The self-imposed challenge to produce 30 episodes in 30 days in November wasn’t going to happen, which I suspect probably mattered more to me than to my listeners.
As I say in the chat with Yolanda, every sadness or life challenge can be a seed of opportunity to turn things around. We never know what may lie around the corner for us. I’m sure in 2015 when Joni Mitchell had her stroke/brain aneurysm and was unable to talk, she never imagined herself being able to one day sing on stage again at a festival within seven years… never assume you can’t do something. Life has a funny way of surprising us.
We really don’t know life at all…