A Concert for the Mentally Disabled
“Life sings through me so strongly that sometimes it lifts me right off the stage. The joy pours in through my crown and beams out through my heart to the audience." |
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Shirlie Roden |
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The following is Shirlie's own experience at a concert for the disabled at the Institution for the Mentally Disabled at Hrastovic, Slovenia. The transcript is taken from an interview with Jana Magazine in Slovenia and Shirlie felt that it was appropriate to relay the account here on her website.
"The most amazing thing for me was that I needed to pour energy into each person, so I was actually going one by one through the entire audience. I could really feel the strong pull of their hearts, the need to be loved. But it wasn't difficult because when I'm performing, I just open up and love flows through me. It was very moving for me. After the concert, there was a patient standing by the side of the stage. A small dumpy man, mongoloid. I went to him, put my arms around him, and as I held him, he just started crying. He felt just like a little child. I could feel in him so much the need to be loved, to really be loved, to be held and comforted. So I just held him, and he cried and cried...."
(Interview in Jana Magazine, Slovenia).
“Life sings through me so strongly that sometimes it lifts me right off the stage. The joy pours in through my crown and beams out through my heart to the audience. And we fly together!”
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© Shirlie Roden, 2005 - 2008.
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