Presence?
Or
Production?
With the screen in your hand, on your lap, or atop your desk, there is no greater question to ponder for our days.
Ashton.Gustafson
Pause by the orchid. Listen to the bluebird sing. Be love.
Tag Archives: blog
The Libraries
That place in your chest that holds countless experiences, failures, successes, triumphs, and journeys…that place is a library. These are pages worth revisiting as long as the memory provides momentum, not drag, into your music.
The group that knows you. The group that is is for you. The cast of characters constantly pushing you towards a better story…they are a library and a source to keep you centered in your story.
There’s a forest leaned up against a mountain with a stream gently running through it. Walking through the trees you walk through a library. Standing atop the mountain you have library beneath you. And in the river is a library where answers are flowing over billions of questions sunk as rocks on the bottom. You can skip a rock or pause to see your reflection. What will you choose? Joy or joy?
The old-school library is a real place too, still. Billions of pages, asleep on the shelves, waiting to be thumbed through. With all of the wisdom in the world recorded and printed thus far, it’s hard to believe such a place is rarely frequented by most. Whimsical bravery is what sends one to walk into such a place. What happens if you find out what you didn’t know?
And then there’s Google. The library and, conveniently, the librarian in your pocket. One click and the unconnected is connected.
Alas, What’s To Be Written > What Has Been Written. That’s what you should do when you leave your libraries.
In Search of Song
Frank Sinatra once said, “Having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation….whatever else has been said about me is unimportant. When I sing, I believe.”
What makes you and your heart sing?
Whatever your answer, may the metaphor be with you and you with the metaphor.
We need more believers.
Sparks Fly
The minute or moment you move into action with your music, sparks start to fly.
And it’s the sparks that we are after.
How else can you start the fire, right?
If you’re wondering where the flame is, perhaps you need to be asking why is this thing (life, business, relationships) not sparking.
And if it’s not sparking, could it be you just simply haven’t taken the responsibility, duty, and obligation of hitting the play button for your music?
Music is intentional. It’s not an accident.
If you’re not available…
…the lesson(s) being taught are irrelevant.
Life constantly teaches us with ups and downs, sunrises and sunsets, waves crashing in and waves pulling out, shooting stars and those hung frozen in the cosmos and there is no pass or fail test. Only two requirements: look and listen.
Ask for openness. Whimsy swirls in fresh air.
Ask to be sponge-like. Soak it in.
Ask for availability. Open > Closed.
Ask, and it will be given to you.
Ashton.Gustafson 
