Once again, I'm learning about the importance of adaptability. I envision a project, a trip, an experience, a future, and set about to create it. Reality intrudes. If I am too rigidly stuck to my initial vision, I can miss the wonderful alternatives that come along. I'm trying to remember that, while nothing happens exactly as we expect it to, what happens instead can often be as good or better—if only we allow it to be.

I'm trying to be more patient. I'm trying to know less about where I'm headed. I'm trying to think less about my image, to compare myself less with others, and instead to trust in the music and its power to connect people. I'm trying to stay aware of my own tendencies to stray from the path of authenticity, and to keep asking myself questions like, Is this really what I want to be doing? Or is my inner compass pointing in some other direction? 

We have a largely unexamined cultural assumption that work should be a form of sacrifice. You do a task you don’t particularly want to do, and spend a good chunk of your day doing it, but in return for that sacrifice you receive money that, ideally, though rarely in practice, is enough to balance out your suffering. What about when the work itself is rewarding, exciting, energizing?

I'll write these posts to offer my thoughts, in case you’re interested. I’ll tell you about my gigs to offer you the chance to attend, if you like. I’m less inclined, these days, to try to convince people of anything. I have little patience for trying to game the algorithm, to maximize the number of eyeballs my posts reach.