The music is the experience that is enjoyed and the story that is written when one’s passions, ideals, conscience, and core values intersect, collide, and crescendo in this world we exist in.
Running in circles of noise, often missing the point, it never hurts to get back to, define, and remember the point of it all.
The point is your music and your music is the point: our gift to receive and the fulfillment of your days.
“But tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live. There is no other reality than the present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.” Alan W. Watts
This moment is the point.
This hour holds the point.
And the next hour will hold its own point.
Moment to moment, connection to connection, conversation to conversation, hand to hand, and soul to soul….to be IN and to be ONE with our moments is the point.
All of your experiences thus far point directly to this reality: You were meant and created to make your music right now.
There’s a billion points the world will convince to bet the farm on, but there’s truly only one to go all in on: your music.
Let it play.
You’re not after trophies.
You’re not after status.
You’re not after “like” clicks.
You’re not after retweets.
You’re not after accolades.
You’re not after money.
No.
You are, however, after doing something with your life.
You are here to make this place better.
Let’s call it this and not that.
This (thing that you are here for) > That (which they’ve convinced you to believe)
You can see today as a shot, an opportunity, or orchestrated divinity from your yesterday’s.
Or, like most, you can see it as a do-over, a mulligan, or a repeat of the past.
Let’s talk about the past. Every experience, reaction, response, and thought you’ve had thus far brought you here to this thing before you called today.
So be careful, today, with your experiences, reactions, responses, and thoughts because they will create your tomorrow.
Today > Tomorrow until Tomorrow is called Today.
Dearest Musician,
This is your time.
This is your canvas.
So gather your instruments, join your fellow musicians, and let your music play.
Know that you are a better teacher for yourself than any book will ever be. Listen to the mirror.
However, it’s not what you know that will fulfill you. It’s what you become when you do what you do and witnessing who that impacts that will fulfill you.
Keep a lookout for the unseen, untouched, and unloved people, places, and things. There is great opportunity in such discoveries.
And lastly, say no to karaoke and yes to something original.
Yours truly,
Two Thousand and Fourteen
Ashton.Gustafson 