There is a Buddhist saying of "do no harm and leave no trace". I have tried to follow this tenant as best I can and as is to be expected there are times when I am more successful than others. I have managed this last year to do pretty well especially when I look back at a year that in many ways was extremely trying. The last part of course of "leaving no trace" is probably sometimes at odds with the very nature of my musical endeavours which at its core is all about leaving something behind, a memorable emotion, a lingering lyric, or just the warm feeling when everything connects and the audience walks away from a show having experienced a little something more than just music. In a few days the year will end as will a decade and almost everyone who can count to ten has a list of some kind. The ten greatest things of this, or the ten most of that, or multiples of ten when ten just isn't enough. I will not give you a list of any kind because ten would not be enough and at the same time too many. When I look back I try to see if i learned anything that I need to carry with me into the coming year. Often and this year will be no different as I have been guilty of making some of the same mistakes I have made in the past, so as each new day is a chance to get it right, so is each new year a bucket full of days to fail, to laugh, to cry, to succeed, to be overjoyed and hopefully not overwhelmed. In 2009 I found myself carrying too much weight, not physically of course, emotionally or metaphysically in that abstract way. And when I was presented with these extra stones they came quite unexpectedly - but that is always the case. My initial response of course was to make adjustments so the load didn't feel so cumbersome, shifting the weight like changing a bag from one hand to next. Now this kind of stuff is great fodder for my music and I have reaped the rewards with some very good songs - though I have decided to try something different going forward that really should have been obvious from the start - to not carry the weight at all. :) I hope to get better in the New Year at the Art of Being Light - of being present in such a way that the moment is all there is, to create and write with a fever, to let go, to let go. I am very excited for 2010, for all the wonderful adventures that lay ahead, for laughs I will have, for the meals I anticipate to eat, for the music I will write, for my friends and their magic. So thank you for all of the support you have given me through the year, and I thank you ahead of time for sticking with me in the coming year! I will as always strive to make you smile, think, feel, maybe even cry with a few chords and some heart and I will be light!!
Cheers,
Michael