I learned early in my touring days that being a sponge to wisdom is an incredible way to live, and makes the most of this very exciting life and career I’ve been blessed with. Here are the quotes that I’ve come across (or come up with) over the years and that I find myself using almost daily to help guide and shape my actions and experiences.
I strongly believe that “life is a journey not a destination”, but this doesn’t give me much day-to-day guidance. Where do worthwhile hustle and healthy productivity fit in the mix? When do we push, and when do we sit back? Surely our destinies are not written so entirely that we should just be along for the ride. Where do ambition, activism, and goal-setting fit?
“Missing Motivation” To say it has been a tough year for musicians is an understatement. We are all facing unprecedented challenges, and my personal view from inside the music community has been of feelings such as denial, disbelief, crisis, apathy, loss of self, and a host of others. I have had some very powerful conversations with musicians about their symptoms in addition to experiencing many of them myself, and I have spent the last several months taking a deeper look. This is all in effort to give words to our shared experience, and to allow us to find relief in…
Venice, Italy. I hadn’t planned to have five open days in Europe, and to be very honest, I wasn’t excited about it. The plans I had for this time had fallen through, leaving me heavy-hearted with the time on my hands. Traveling solo sounded more daunting than exciting, but Italy had been on the bucket list and something told me the magical country wouldn’t let me regret it. I booked flights on a Wednesday and was stepping off the train in Venice six days later. The city actually sparkles. The glimmer of the water, the gondolas, the glint in the…
I am incredibly lucky to have a global tribe of people that supports my endeavors and cares for me when I’m in need. You know who you are, and this year wouldn’t have been possible or enjoyable without all of your help. For one of the first times in my life I had to put my fierce independence aside and embrace my need for others, and you all showed up. Historically speaking, relying on others was not my really my “thing.” I spent the years just prior to my travel adventure embracing newly-found independence and convincing myself that this need…
“Where are you based?”“When do you head home?” I still fumble through the answers to these questions after shows. Throughout the year I tried not to use the word “homeless.” More like “home-free.” Usually I mentioned something about two full-time bands and it not making sense to pay rent anywhere, but I’m still not sure most people fully understood what it meant.No closet. No address. No bed. No desk. No nightstand. No junk drawer… Just minimal clothes stashed in different places in the country, and a daily attempt to make a new place feel like a home. I’ll be forever…
Despite pain making life more difficult, it has also given me what I consider to be one of my greatest strengths. I’ve learned to “default to empathy”in all situations, and it has truly changed the way I live my life. For years my pain made me bitter and resentful, but now, it makes it that much easier for me to identify with others and have compassion for anyone else suffering in any way. This took a conscious shift in mindset and certainly isn’t fool-proof, but now I believe my history of pain allows me to have empathy readily available in…
This year of travel has offered me some profound learning experiences, none more than this simple lesson: impermanence teaches you what you want to be permanent. When everything is temporary, it gets obvious what you want to keep around. Traveling full-time often means energy reserves are low and sleep is minimal, so I’ve become acutely aware of who and what requires energy, and who and what refills my reserves. Motivation is a scarce resource, and only certain activities that you’re truly passionate about can keep you going. These activities form a kind of “energy symbiosis;” they may drain you, but…
Paris was beautiful in so many ways. You can order 3 types of bread and 2 desserts all at once and no one bats a single judgmental eyelash. They practically have a cigarette hanging from their mouths as they serve the table anyway, like a beacon of their disregard. Parisians live on croissants in the morning, wine at lunch, cheese for dessert, cigarettes all day, and another baguette as they walk home. They stand confidently in their own skin, and I heard very few comments on each others’ appearance. There was a perpetual sense of shrugging and saying “you do you.”…
I’m sitting in an Irish hotel room after a full Irish breakfast, rain and wind blowing outside, and warm lamplight fills the room. I don’t have anywhere to be until 6pm, and I got my gym workout and computer work done before breakfast. This is the first time on this Irish tour I’ve been able to find all necessary ingredients to sit and be creative. No schedule pressure, work pressure, or appeal of nice weather outside… all is finally quiet, internally and externally. I consider myself an inherently creative person and feel lucky to have a life and career that…