Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Hey hey! Writing late enough this morning to not have to do another photo of the lamp reflection, which is nice. Here you can see that I had to take a slightly different angle than usual because we still have the dumpster impeding the view from our back window out there. But not for long. The remodel is heading to the back stretch now. It’s a crazy thing to go through. I’ve talked in the past about how people all seem to run their lives at different speeds – sort of like the speeds of records – some are 33rpm, some 45, maybe a few run at 16rpm, and of course there’s my category: 78rpm. And everything in between. But no matter what your normal speed of life is, we all have periods where we pull back or push forward a bit. And, especially during the times when life is running at a pace above where we’re normally comfortable, it will affect us only if and when we let it. We periodically have to go through times like that to move ahead and grow. Now that we’re almost done with the remodel, we’re starting to say things like, “we should have done this years ago”… right? How often has that happened to you? Finally make that change you thought about forever, then wonder why it took you so long. Because you needed to be mentally and physically prepared for it. Tensions can run high when the speed of life is over our comfort zone. And – the remodel is only one thing we have going on right now. I have shows coming up with three different bands as well, about 125 songs to learn. And I’m in the midst of a year where I’m also trying to post three weekly videos (which wouldn’t really be an issue if I didn’t also have all those songs to learn). Then there’s the weekly blog and newsletter that I’ve been doing for years. And I do actually have a day job – have you noticed the effect of the corona virus on the markets? We’re ramped up full bore these days. I’ll be working on songs and videos all day today after this, well – and a yoga class this morning. Trying to fit that in, too. But eventually – the house will be remodeled – and awesome. We’ll declutter during the process. The shows with Road Trip are March 8-15 only, Time Machine April 4-25th, and once we start playing shows with my new band Random Maxx I’ll have the set list down and eventually only work on the same new material at practice as everyone else. And the markets will return to normal, too – they always do (whatever normal is). And the speed of life will return to our normal pace. Then we might want to back off a little actually, maybe take some time off. Until the next frenzy. What I’ve found is that if I can stay calm within the storm and just enjoy the ride that’s where my soul wants to take me. It’s very similar to learning a fast passage in music. If you get all tense when that passage comes up, you won’t be able to do it – it’ll overwhelm you. You need to approach it with the calm confidence that comes from years of practice. Maybe you’ve never played that particular passage before, but you’ve gotten through many others similar that prepared you for this moment. And when you’re done you’ll wonder “why didn’t I do this years ago?”… ride the wave. Enjoy every moment. And when you look back you’ll be amazed how far you’ve come.