As much as we may think music about the musician, it’s not about him or her.
When we make our music we find ourself in an experience full of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. Simultaneously, we’re giving a gift to the world.
Imagine a joy so unexplainable that it spills over and gives joy to those who encounter it.
That is what happens when we make our music. We swap joy.
Giving > Receiving.
We all have gardens that obey the universal laws of harvest.
Cultivate the garden and the garden grows and blooms brilliantly with beauty and produce. Neglect the garden and the weeds spread and eventually take over. With either choice there’s an aftermath of growth.
Your art is a garden. Your family is a garden. Your career is a garden. Your hope is garden. Your passion is a garden. Let’s go deep…your soul is a garden. Let’s go wide…your life is a garden.
No matter your garden, your job isn’t to simply show up.
Your job is to cultivate day after day. Rain, sleet, snow, or shine.
Like it or not, something is going to grow.
Weeds: Noise. Flowers : Music.
And lucky farmer is an oxymoron.
I believe you are a musician.
I believe there is song after song after song waiting to be awakened in you.
I believe there’s far too many people telling you what to believe your music should be.
I believe your music is your call.
I believe finding your music is your true and holy vocation.
I believe the vocation of finding your music will help move others into the same pursuit, resulting in a world of less noise and more music.
I believe your music is why you are here.
I believe we will all be better after having been exposed to your riffs, rhythm, and rhyme.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.”
A successful life is one that says ‘here’s my music.’
Emphasis on my (which is yours).
You need not borrow that which is already in you.
Remember elementary school? Remember the golden rule of raising your hand?
Well, good news, you no longer have to raise your hand for permission to do something, ask a question, or make a statement.
In this new (and what appears here to stay) economy you just need to start the doing, the questioning, and the statement making.
We used to fear raising our hand for one of two reasons: we were afraid of what the teacher’s reaction would be or we were afraid of what our classmates would say behind our back.
Now, with hand raising no longer in the rule book, the fear lies in starting something great, asking great questions, and making a great statement.
The resistance will pour you a glass of fear to drink if there’s any chance of you making or doing something great and worthwhile.
Three things:
1) Starting is step one and must happen for step two to occur. Talking about step ten will never make starting step 1 easier. Just do it.
2) Questions > Answers.
3) The statement I’m talking about here is the metaphor you were sent here to show us.
You can put your hands down now. Go.
Ashton.Gustafson 