I recently spent 3 days in a Virginia music studio, recording original songs with my other two Mystic Chics.  As a creative soul, I enjoyed this experience.   Being a newbie, I had a lot to learn.  Viewing everyone as my teacher, I observe, integrate, and apply.  Jarrett, the skilled, grounded, calm, ever-so-humorous producer, was a master at his craft of listening, guiding, producing, editing and so much more.  He used the phrase, “let’s tighten it up.”  While there may be a succinct definition to this phraseology, I dare not attempt to write it.  My primary profession is as an energy healer and I navigate my life with frequencies, energies, and sensations.  Spending time observing the energy of this phrase, I quickly caught on.  Whether it be a melodic change, instrumentation, vocal echo, time beat, etc. I could apply the energy of this to various aspects of the recording and editing process.  It delighted me to find that the art of “tightening it up” became like a sweet puppy and followed me to other avenues in my life.

Just a few days later, we three Mystic Chics found ourselves at a final deadline to edit our chapter of an anthology:  Deserts to Mountaintops.  We had been in this writing process for 5 months plus and it was time to submit our final selection of part of our story for our first publication as authors.  Similar to recording our songs, the process can feel endless.  We changed our minds a plethora of times…this word, no not that one…say it this way…use this inflection…well maybe it’s too much….Perfectionism battled artistry in both projects.  Eventually, we needed to draw the line in the sand with our choices to be etched in time, making peace with our decisions.  We found ourselves on fire with the editing process.  Where there had previously been numerous counts of stagnation, each of us had instantaneous clarity with each paragraph…we were finding ourselves “tightening it up.”  I loved the energy flowing through me and with self-awareness, exclaimed how it was easy to edit with our newfound practice to “tighten it up” just like we had done with recording our songs.  Had I not experienced that process in the recording studio, I would not have had the confidence, flow, and ability to edit our chapter so succinctly.

The puppy came back home to the Berkshires with me as I tackled a move of residence, needing to organize many areas of my living life.  Filled with newfound patience, calm energy, and a tempo in taking action in this large organizational endeavor, I savored the process.  My former self would dive in and come up for air when needed.  Presently, I did a sort of analyzing, scoping out, and pre-preparing before taking action.  Again, it washed over me that I was applying this new skill to “tighten it up.”  Let’s go for a walk!  Woof!

– Audrey Herrick, October 2022