(I begin anywhere.)
When I need to splash my ears with something pure, submerge my heaviness in a spicier creative flow/audio cologne, I dip from the steady soundstreams of Mr. Green’s Classic Beats Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Sometimes waking up from a dream of sunset on an underground city or the realization that the shards of tissue paper on last week’s collage patterned the bite shapes in today’s breakfast toast can be overwhelming. (Uh, reading that was overwhelming, right? And so Prozac was invented for the literate.) These volumes refresh my sense of choice and spring load my joy dominoes with feelings of gratitude.
Conversely, Classic Beats Vol. 4, also known as “Ill Piano”, has taken a while for me to receive. If you remember my romance with the black n white keys, you might find this strange. Take a listen and you might be like, “Grrrl what shitwax was keeping you from enjoying this ambrosial ear jelly?” And I might respond like, “Uh insane jealousy for this shiz-mastery.”
And a little more honestly, “Piano can connect me to memory.” And sometimes those strolls down memory lane, if taken unconsciously, can lead to groves of lost love rather than deer paths of appreciation. Jamming to these beats has stoked my creative fire and helped me realize that my love is never lost. I might not be able to change the past, but I can still give my best to the present moment.
Gratitude launched!
With gratitude for everyone known, lost, and loved, I would like to share a newsworthy article of my morning. For some reason, it is leading me to reflect on the idea that
(1) contentment with one’s being, and
(2) the act of striving for great goodness
are not mutually exclusive.
This is like…a lesson I want to learn. I have deep respect for Mr. Oliver Sacks. I associate him with other brilliant souls whose words on intelligence, creativity, playfulness and love stick with me through the dark times and the light.
“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.”
– Oliver Sacks
Respect.
apparently 