Chanda: Hi, my name is Chanda Rule and I am the host of the Courageous Voice Podcasts. Welcome. Thank you so much for listening. This is the last podcast of the season, episode 19. It’s been a long journey this year in 2022, [00:01:00] and I just wanted to come on and give a quick thank you and shout out to my listeners. Thank you so much for listening this year.

Thank you so much to connect.faith for Debbie Bronkema, for having faith in me to do this podcast and for hooking me up with some fabulous folks that have been helping me along the way, producing and editing Jess Burchett and Ana Segal. And I’m super excited about this year and about what is in store.

For next year if this happens to be your first episode, welcome. What we’ve been doing this year is interviewing folks on the topic of courageousness, and this has been a topic that has been of interest to me probably all of my life. I consider myself a very scary person, and I know at some point [00:02:00] or for a long time I thought of courageousness as being people that could just do anything and they weren’t afraid of anything.

And then I read this really interesting book, uh, oh my gosh… it was called On Courage, and of course, now I can’t think of the guy’s name. On Courage was the name of the book. And this book was so interesting because they talked about this courageous journey and that in actuality, that courageousness was not about this whole attitude of, oh, uh, I can just do anything.

It was, it was pressing on. It was the doing and acting, even though you were. Afraid and Wow, that just blew my mind. . And even so after this book, I continued to really be curious about courageousness and, and really longing to be, um, as courageous as I could be. And I came across another podcast that said, you know, if there’s really something you want to learn, you should do [00:03:00] a podcast about it because you get to interview folks and you get to learn.

And I thought, wow, that would be great. I can learn more about courageousness and I gotta also be an inspiration to other folks. So if you don’t know me, um, again, my name is Chanda. I am a singer. I am a writer. I like to call myself a joy spreader. I’m also a vocal coach, and ugh, a liturgist, um, a budding theologian.

So I wear many hats and I think that, um, all of them, oh my goodness, I didn’t mention parenting. I’m a parent. I’m a wife. All of these roles, uh, require a considerable amount of courageousness. So it is my hope that something that is said in these interviews will inspire you. I come across so many people, whether I’m singing, or teaching, or leading ritual or liturgy. So many [00:04:00] people that have so much on their hearts that they want to share with the world. And there’s always so many things that, uh, give the illusion of standing in the way of getting those things accomplished. And so, you know, I hope that this can be an inspiration to someone to start to kind of push through and navigate through to do it anyway.

You know, I love to tell my students about how I got started with singing, because I studied journalism and you know, I always, always, always, always wanted to be a singer, and it was kind of a, a secret dream of mine because I never really thought that it would come true. I think mostly because I never saw people that looked like me that were singers, you know, I was this little dark-skinned kid living in the suburbs in the Midwest and you know, in the eighties this was not a popular thing to be a little dark-skinned girl claiming that she wanted be a singer. So it just, it really was [00:05:00] not in my realm of possibilities or what I thought was possible. So it stayed a secret dream. But whenever I could, um, sing something, I would, when I was younger, I would sing really loud . And as I got older, I just got really nervous because I was afraid, I was ashamed. I didn’t want people really looking at me.

I thought people would tease me. And so, after a while though, it was such a burning desire that I kind of had to do it. So I kind of had to start taking some lessons or some classes or letting people hear me sing. And every step of the way I felt like I did get encouragement because I do feel, um, and I really believe that once you kind of put yourself out there, that the world does meet you, whatever you wanna call it, love or God or the universe, I, I do believe that.

And also, oh my gosh, I was always super, super nervous. Um, but I do remember, at one point there was this decision of I’m gonna do this anyway. [00:06:00] Um, and so that was probably one of my first super, super, super courageous acts that I could remember. Um, My second, I think, becoming a mom at… woo. I was considered a geriatric pregnancy.

I hate this term, I hate this, but I was 38 and, um, this was also a courageous act for me. I’m married to an Austrian, so, uh, bringing an interracial intercultural child into this world with no manual has been a courageous act. My son is now nine. He’s great. But yeah, every day, every moment of being a mom and a parent and a wife has been an act of courageousness and melting and vulnerability, all of those things.

And I will say one other courageous thing that I’ve done is moving to Austria from New York. After 40, which was a big deal because I feel like moving into another culture is like putting on another head, [00:07:00] which I didn’t know this. And I think putting on another head after 40 is courageous, to say the least, and has been a journey.

But I’ve been lucky to find community here in Vienna and to meet beautiful people along the way. And it’s my hope that these acts of courageousness continue. There are so many more ways. I would love to be more courageous in sharing my views on unpopular topics, in the choices that I make as a parent and as a wife and as a creative person.

Um, definitely there are ways that I would like to be more courageous with that, and I am hoping to bring you along on that journey. So, If you have not checked out season one of the Courageous Voice Podcast, I encourage you to do so. There have been some amazing conversations. I’m getting my life with these interviews.

We have talked to visual [00:08:00] artists, to writers, to singers, to musicians, to scientists. It has been amazing. Amazing. So check out the episodes, then take a break with me for a couple months, and then come back in March 2023 for season two of the Courageous Voice Podcast and stay tuned for some more goodies.

We’re gonna have some community workshops next year. I’m super excited about those. And you can also reach out to me on social media, on my website. My website is chandarule.com. Or you can also find me thecourageousvoice.com or on Instagram @TheCourageousVoice, or @IAmChandaRule. And then Facebook is, @IAmChanda also. Um, yeah, so check me out, send me a message. Let me know. If there’s someone you would [00:09:00] like me to interview, let me know and I’ll do my best to do that. And of course you can just drop me a line. Tell me how you’re enjoying. The podcast, um, or if you have anything else you wanna chat with me about, please feel free to do so.

So once again, thank y’all so much. This has been a wonderful year, and I look forward to chatting with you again in 2023. Have a wonderful holiday season. Bye-bye.