Originally posted on Facebook HERE
I’m reading Matthew McConaughey’s book “Greenlights” right now, (great book, by the way), and in it he talks about how we all need a “walkabout”. Later he calls this a “spiritual realignment” where we take some time in solitude to readjust our perspectives. The importance of doing this hit me like a ton of bricks in 2018, when I took three weeks off work to go to Florida and write Feed Your Angel. I’m certainly a “type A” individual. AI has a great definition of what a type A personality is that ends with “people with a Type A personality generally experience a higher stress level, hate failure, and find it difficult to stop working, even when they have achieved their goals”. Yeah… that’s me. I do yoga, I meditate, I workout, I run — in many ways to just calm myself down and stay grounded as much as possible. But I say “yes” to a lot of things, so my days are basically always not just full — they’re “too full”. Every day it’s basically impossible to get to everything on my “to-do” list. Maybe if I just ran my business I could get to everything there, but I also have to set aside time for all the health related things I mentioned above, as well as music, writing, and once in a while doing something just for the fun of it as well. So, periodically I can feel the tension mounting. I’ve gotten to a place now where I can tell when it’s time to back off and reset, however I can do it. We take several vacations a year — that certainly helps. But I’ll never forget the first few days in Florida in 2018, when I went to the woods alone thinking I would write my book and I had an emotional release of epic proportions. I had no idea the tension I had been holding inside me. I couldn’t have that inside me while I wrote a spiritual book. And in the course of the three weeks I was there — numerous people mentioned to me how much I had changed during that time. Some were people I first met in Florida, others were friends and family from home. There is a huge value in going somewhere alone and spending time working on yourself. Making sure the life you have isn’t leading you — that you are leading it. You won’t find God within the anxiety, tension and fear that comes from an overactive lifestyle. God is calm. I have an insanely busy week coming up this week — recording an album, playing three shows, practicing with two bands, working my day job, taking care of the house while my wife is in Maine, and turning 64 next Monday. Seems like a nice crescendo that could maybe lead me into taking some time off for a spiritual realignment. We all need a walkabout, right?…
