Small glimmers of light

I admit it - I've felt hard done by and hard hit, and there have been times in the last days where everything seemed pretty futile. The grim news headlines are enough to make anybody want to pull the blankets over their head and stay there, and the continued bad news for us personally was getting pretty hard to weather.

But this week, pinpoints of light ahead. Only small, but they're there.

The first real light emerged yesterday with a small offer for the spring - it won't completely "fill the gap" left by the cancelled contracts next year, but it's an opportunity to sing wonderful music with extraordinary colleagues, and I have no doubt it will be a great experience (and a lot of fun!). I'd have been happy to do this particular gig under any circumstances, but at the moment it's particularly meaningful.

Continuing to try and look at the glass half full, my audition season went well and is done for the time being (no more frantic trips up to NYC for a while! I love going up there, but it does get exhausting when it's several times a week!). I sang well throughout and, although one never really knows whether an audition will lead to something (word of mouth recommendation and previous collaborations lead to being hired as much as anything else), I know I did my best to "show 'em what I do" in each of my 5-10 minute opportunities to strut my stuff, which is the part that's up to me; the rest is down to so many variables, most of which are entirely outside my control. But a good audition is never wasted, as "word of mouth" can come from many different sources - I can walk away from this season knowing I presented myself well and that's a good feeling.

So, even while the bad news continues to top the headlines, at least for me today there's a sense of some kind of balance I recognise, and I fully intend to savour it and use it to keep myself going. Light ahead. Keep moving. Don't look down.