When my feet hit the stage, when I hear the extra bass reverberation of my own footstep across a now hollow platform, when the ground gives – just a little – compared to the carpet-covered cement I felt just two steps ago… that’s when I KNOW I AM HOME.
– Tim Ringgold, MT-BC
Tim’s first steps like that were on the wooden stage of his elementary school for vocal solo after vocal solo. Tim’s first solo was at the age of 4 singing the timeless classic, “I want a harmonica for Hanukkah” (Ask him to sing it for you – he still remembers it). He’s been on stage ever since. First, it came as a soloist year after year which culminated with his singing a solo to His Holiness Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in front of 13,000 Catholic pilgrims when he was only 16 yrs old.From there, the musical journey changed radically into the more exciting world of rock and roll, where he walked in his idols’ footsteps playing famous venues like the Whisky, Roxy, and Troubadour in Hollywood, CA and The Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, AZ. When he returned to the world of classical music to pursue a degree in music therapy in his 30’s, his feet felt even bigger stages like The Hollywood Bowl and some of the oldest and largest Cathedrals in Europe.
The son of an editor, Tim was schooled in the proper articulation of endless words that would impress the most fervent scrabble player. Nicknamed “Roget” in his Prep School, Tim was always known – and often picked on – for being the one that used “fancy words.” Still, his father’s love and command of the English language stuck, and the first time Tim saw one of his heroes, Tony Robbins, speak on TV, he had a quiet realization. He could simply see himself up there ‘doing that,’ though he wasn’t entirely sure how one just becomes a paid speaker for a profession.
After several invitations, Tim finally accepted an invitation to attend a weekend seminar that changed his life. As the Landmark Forum Leader led his seminar, Tim had a second realization. He could simply see himself up there ‘being that.’ A few years later, he became a Program Leader for Landmark Education, conducting 3-hour interactive workshops with small groups where he was given the opportunity to coach, speak, and inspire people to take action to better themselves.
As fulfilling as this was, it was missing one critical element for Tim: music. He left Landmark Education to pursue a career as a board certified music therapist, where he was able to leverage the power of music to help others with myriad challenges from autism to alzheimers, and from addiction to cancer. While has been the most meaningful and rewarding work Tim has undertaken yet, he noticed that people also benefitted equally when he simply talked about music therapy, for most people weren’t aware of this treatment option for their own challenges of pain, stress, attention or behavior challenges, or group cohesion. Tim found himself in front of more and more groups sharing the power of music therapy from the stage, and it was at this point that seemingly all his life experiences coalesced into one point… well, almost.
The track that runs along side Tim’s professional journey is his personal journey, and this track has overcome many, many obstacles. From the murder of his 5 closest friends, to the early death of his father, to his own struggle with addiction, to the life and death of his special needs daughter, Tim has had to adapt and respond to adversity in several high-intensity experiences, which have led him to adopt a philosophy of faith and resilience that endless followers of his blog always comment on.
Fusing that philosophy into a 4-step formula for transformation, Tim now feels called to share this skill set, particularly in two seemingly diverse segments of the population: parents of special needs children, people struggling with addiction, and even corporate teams. As a former parent of a special needs child, Tim knows personally what the stress is like to keep a family together, much less a marriage and a career.
He seeks to empower parents with skills to build and strengthen their marriages so that they don’t become another statistic. As a person in recovery, he knows firsthand how powerful addiction is, and has dedicated his life to helping others recover from one of the biggest epidemics our society is currently facing. As a struggling recording artist, Tim also labored for years in the corporate world by day, and realizes that most adults spend the majority of their waking hours at work – not with family. He’s passionate about empowering his fellow adults to have the skills to respond to all of the volatile changes occurring in the modern workplace.
You may notice Tim sporting ‘fabulous socks’ whenever you see him. When his daughter Bella was lying in intensive care for 99 days before she died in 2010, the only clothes she could wear, due to endless tubes coming in and going out of her tiny body, were socks. Tim wrote a blog at www.bellasblessings.com about his family’s journey, and whenever he would change her socks, he would take a picture and share it, calling it, “Bella’s Fabulous Socks of the Day.” Readers from all over the world began mailing Bella fabulous socks, and today, there is a tiny Christmas tree in the Ringgolds’ living room next to Bella’s urn that has fabulous socks for ornaments adorning it. Tim wears fabulous socks to ‘take her with him’ wherever he goes, and to remember that life is short, so make music and have fun!
