This was the fourth year of posting thoughts and reflections on making music with our lives, relationships, and businesses.
Thank you for your support and kind words. It is day one for all of us and that is great news.
Below you’ll find the most read and shared posts for 2015.
LTMP Podcast: Introduction to Let The Music Play.
The Uncertainty That Comes With The Alchemy of Our Days.
I’ve always been a fan of gray, overcast days. The chill and the gloom makes me look harder in the world and in myself for the warmth and light to follow.
It was quite gray in Texas today.
These brilliant words from Mary Oliver warmed me up.
Everyday you’re counting something.
Question…on the average day what are you typically counting in your head before you fall asleep? Bad drivers? Offenders? Cash on hand? Calories? To dos, ta-das, or do-overs? The thing is, even when you get to infinity, there’s still another number that can go higher…infinity one, infinity two, etc.
This world of measurement leads to all forms of downward spiral thinking and living: us vs. them, greater than less than, insider/outsider, good guys-bad guys, worthy and unworthy, fame and shame…you get the picture.
Then there are those experiences that we forget to measure, but they’re always being noticed and tallied in the, often unnoticed, radars of our bodies and souls. Things like love, beauty, impact, hope, connection, and joy. The things that strike the chord deep within us.
Here, with these things, is where measurement becomes something different altogether. The cup that we start to measure with wonderfully increases capacity. The scale just says ‘yes’. The numbers we count by are the numbers ‘again’ and ‘again’. Yes, this is an ocean that only gets deeper with waves that only get better in water that only becomes more pleasant. And the weather here always suits the soul’s palate for that day.
We all want to unwrap something ‘more’ today and in all of our tomorrows, but more doesn’t need to be numeric or divisive.
More and more of less and less. Lighter and brighter. Music over noise.
One of our greatest gifts is our ability to adapt in the midst of change.
The true fear we have in the midst of change is actually a fear of the unknown. So we tend to fight, fly, or freeze when change and an unknown future is on the horizon.
Here’s the catch: change is the horizon. Your gift and reward is your adaption through this horizon.
Merry Christmas.
It has happened so fast and most of us haven’t noticed the trend. The concept of beautiful has become synonymous with glamor.
And they’re not the same.
This understanding and perspective is failing us.
We have bigger homes with smaller hearts.
We have faster, fancier cars accompanied with even faster breathing.
And we’ve chosen consumption over care for ourselves and our neighbors.
A vote won’t change this. Your next tweet won’t either.
But you can.
You can make the choice to step off the tireless hamster wheel, get out of the glamourous rat race, and waltz with your humanity back into what’s truly beautiful.
Before you start unwrapping on Friday, let’s remember to not get our words mixed up.
Praying this week that you find a way in your world to experience that new, old, kind of beautiful.
The keys are yours…
Ashton.Gustafson 