The Power of One

Between all the chaos and down time I've experienced the past several days,  I've reflected over and over on one of my favorite people of all time.

Literally. ALL. Time.

Her name is Elizabeth Bossard. But everyone calls her Boss. Because she was, and still is, THE Boss. 

She was my voice teacher since I was 15. She was also my therapist who never charged me a dime. (Literally spent hundreds of hours on her living room couch talking about life.) She was my adopted grandma. She was a dear friend. She was someone I looked up to. Someone I will always look up to.

That woman knows more about me than probably anybody besides my parents and God. And to be fair, she even knows some things that my parents haven't heard yet. No offense to parents, but you know what I mean. Sometimes you just need a third-party. 

Boss has my total respect, trust, and admiration. Last April she suddenly passed away. I haven't ever recovered from that. And I don't think I'm not ever going to. I'm just now starting to accept that. 

Boss was the only person I ever talked to candidly about my relationships, my dreams, my mistakes, and my fears. She knew my deepest secrets, my anxieties, and my pains.  

And better yet, she knew how to heal all of the above. She knew how to bring out your best, even when you felt at your absolute, rock-bottom worst. 

Sometimes when I just didn't feel like singing, we'd eat Dove chocolates and talk about life instead. 

That was when I learned the very most about what it really means to use my voice.  

But anyway, before I get all incredibly sappy and become a trainwreck, I just feel a need to share one of the biggest lessons Boss taught me. She taught it to me my VERY first day of voice lessons as a 15-year old girl. And she taught it over and over ever since. 

She taught me about the power of one. 

Now you're probably wondering what in the world that means. 

She actually used this phrase to refer to a vocal technique you achieve using your diaphram and a one-pound weight that you hold in a specific position. Hence the catchy, power of "one."

Boss was clever like that.

But she often reiterated this concept with a very cheerful twinkle in her eye in so many different contexts. And apparently I'm a slow learner because I've more recently started to grasp what she was teaching me all along...

It just takes ONE. 

ONE person can be the difference.

ONE person can make a change. 

ONE person can make decisions that can greatly influence others. Sometimes a few others. Sometimes a zillion. 

ONE person matters. 

ONE person has what it takes.

ONE person is someone important to somebody else. 

The power of ONE has never been more important to me than it is right now. 

So let me just preach for a second. YOU are important. Your decisions will affect so many others. Some of those people you don't even know yet. Some of them you may never know. 

But YOU have the power to brighten up the world. Or at least somebody's world. 

So do it. Or as Boss would say, "Do it, damnit." And I heartily concur. 

Thanks for the reminder, Boss. You have made all the difference in my life, and in thousands of others. I owe you a lifetime of trying to lift others. You exemplify the power of one in every single way. I will ALWAYS admire that more than you will ever know. 

So seriously y'all, use YOUR voice to be the difference. You might think to yourself, But I'm just one person. My voice won't carry far.

But it does. And it will. 

Sorry Boss, that it took me a zillion voice lessons to get that that's what your were really training my voice to do. But I'm starting to get it now. 

Love you, Boss! To the moon and back. 

And thanks for everything.