Heather Kerr

Transcript

so when I was little I loved fairy tales I loved them because they were magical and because they made me think that magic was possible and even the most ordinary little girl's life so tonight I'd like to tell you a fairy tale about my Tibetan bull but like all fairy tales it's not really a story about my bowl it's really a story about each of you so I've got this critical voice in my head it says things like Heather did you honestly think that was a good thing to say last night oh my god Heather did you walk out in that outfit I used to

work with this guy who I used to try to avoid because he you know told rumors and he had criticisms for everybody but sometimes it's like he's there in my head with me still so a Tibetan bowl is made out of a special bronze alloy and when you strike it with a mallet it makes this amazing vibration it's kind of like a musical note and that's why they're called singing bowls so about five years ago I was in Katmandu and one day all of us decided we wanted to go see something called the monkey palace now the monkey Palace is in this ancient city and

it's on this tall tower this big hill and there are 365 steps to go up this hill so we got to the bottom of the step and I'm like trudging up these 365 steps and I looked up and on the outside of the tempo there were these Buddhist eyes painted and they were looking down at me and I kind of felt like they were mocking me you thought you're in good shape hey so I got into the temple and I walked through the door and I looked and there were all these monks selling their wares and I thought I wanted to get the best-sounding Bowl

so I went from one table to another wringing the bowls listening right is that the right sound I don't think so and I try another and another one and you know when you get that feeling that somebody is watching you so I kind of looked up and over there there was this month and he was watching me and as soon as he caught my eye he rushed over to me and he said come with me I want to show you something not ok and I followed him into his shop and there were all these bowls on these shelves and he got out a footstool and

he climbed on top and he took this bull from out of his shelf and he showed me this scar inside of it and he said you know this bull used to be an ordinary bullet used to sound like all those other balls that you were trying but then something totally amazing happened he said it dropped off the shelf and it broke and when we welded it together it was incredible because I got a mallet and I hit it like this and when I heard this low sweet tone from this bowl that was so much more beautiful than everything else I'd tried something inside me shifted

and I almost started to cry you see because I always had thought that I was broken I had always thought I was flawed and there was something wrong with me so I used to work in the tall towers in Toronto and everybody looked up to me I had a large staff and needs to say how they're so successful but inside I felt like something was wrong and so sometimes when I felt really sad i nip downstairs under and go into a book store that was underneath our Tower and I'd go over to the self-help book section and I would sit down in between the aisles

of books and I'd scan for titles until I found a title like ten ways to feel better and I go I'll give that a try and I'd race home and I'd pull up my covers and I would devour that book but nothing ever lasted for long but when I heard that sound coming from this broken Bowl I had the thought for the first time maybe I'm enough maybe I'm okay exactly the way I am and so this bowl started my journey this bowl taught me that even though I've made so many mistakes and I said the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong

people but still even though I've made mistakes you know each time I've made a mistake I gained wisdom I've learned something that I can offer other people and so all my mistakes all my brokenness have made me better and those things are now allowing me to go out to the world and offer my beautiful song and so I know that each person in this room tonight has a beautiful song to sing each one of you has something unique to offer the world and I believe with all my heart that what you have to offer is more beautiful because of those times that you have been

broken because I believe that it is our broken beautiful selves that connect us together and make us love each other thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.