Blog Post

Karen Kohler’s blog posts and musings about life, art, love, nature, the universe and everything. You in the key of mastery.

Remembering Greta: A Certain Kind of Soul Music

By |2025-03-25T15:10:59-04:00March 25th, 2025|Blog Post, Writing|

My latest labor of love is a tribute to my dear friend and colleague, the French-born cabaret star Greta, who passed away on January 18, 2025. This article is best consumed with a goblet of red wine, or your favorite vodka. To read the homage at Cabaret Scenes magazine, follow this link. “In the search for my path Through [...]

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Improvisation: Language Beyond Words

By |2020-04-29T17:07:50-04:00October 25th, 2017|Acting, Blog Post, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

Words! Words! I'm so sick of words! I get words all day through; First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do? Don't talk of stars burning above; If you're in love, show me! ~ from My Fair Lady (lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) Think about the last time you played with a baby. How [...]

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Oh Sweet Desire, You Know How I Hate to Practice

By |2021-11-17T12:37:04-05:00February 23rd, 2017|Blog Post, Performance Art, Stagecraft|

I've never been good at practicing. I like to be good at something quickly, and if I'm not good at something quickly, I don't like doing it. So I put it away, for awhile. Or forever. Such has been the fate of tennis, baking, sewing and tap-dancing, to name a few. The blame seems to fall squarely on the shoulders [...]

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Edge Play: Creating Art that Challenges

By |2020-04-29T17:09:27-04:00January 30th, 2017|Acting, Blog Post, Performance Art, Singing, Stagecraft|

Performers are revealers; we lay a thing bare. To cultivate as broad a landscape of potential revelation as possible, we venture from the center of familiarity and recognition to the edge of mystery and uncertainty. Just as there are edges to the stage space, there are edges to us performers too. I consider the edge that place where there's nothing to hide [...]

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Message in A Bottle: “Don’t Put Anything Off”

By |2020-04-29T20:11:27-04:00November 3rd, 2016|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

"Don't put anything off," is the advice of a dear friend who recently lost his wife to cancer after a long battle. Together they had been grand patrons of art in my community. I pause to assess my life. It's rich with all that I hold dear - my marriage, family, singing, directing, coaching, traveling, gardening, reading, learning. Still, I [...]

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On Integrity: Scaling Rocks, Rocking Scales

By |2020-04-29T20:11:36-04:00July 10th, 2016|Blog Post, Life Arts|

One of the first really conscious tastes I had of being fully aligned and integrated as a woman occurred during a wilderness training exercise when I was 39. I had opted into the challenge of scaling a 40-foot high rock face with many purchase points, both real and deceptive. Safely harnessed and belayed from below with lots of eyes on [...]

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Seed Your Soul

By |2020-04-29T20:09:45-04:00June 13th, 2016|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

If you search for your soul you won’t find it. Search for anything — power, talent, time, romance, riches, God — they will elude you. Instead evoke them. Call them forth. In the case of your soul — recall it and then seed it. Uncover who you already are. Bring forth who and what you already possess. Who you are at birth is given. There [...]

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Leave Breadcrumbs

By |2020-05-02T18:59:57-04:00April 2nd, 2016|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

I believe in breadcrumbs. Since the night I snuggled up to my Oma’s bosom to hear her read Hansel and Gretel for the first time, breadcrumbs have fueled my imagination. Haunted and yet mesmerized by this tale of witches and evil stepmothers, it was the breadcrumbs I remember most. And I began leaving them too. I didn’t do it consciously, but then neither did Hansel [...]

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Money, Money, Money

By |2020-04-29T20:10:24-04:00February 1st, 2016|Blog Post, Life Arts|

Back in November, I was interviewed by Lizzie O'Leary, host of NPR's Marketplace Weekend who was querying different kinds of folks about their relationship to money, including me the artist. Our short chat was inspiring and has prompted more writing on the subject. Lizzie asked me to explain why I believe it isn't noble to be a broke artist. We have to [...]

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Give Your Gift Before You Go

By |2020-04-29T20:10:33-04:00January 1st, 2016|Blog Post, Life Arts, Storytelling|

This New Year's morning, my man and I were talking about the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And about how I have enough decades behind me now to weigh and measure. I've been here long enough to attend births, to steward some into their own becoming, and be with others at the doorway to their deaths. [...]

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