Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Sunday Bagel. This email might be the best thing to happen to you since you popped out of the womb.
To start this edition, I looked through my camera roll to see what was notable this week that I could write about. I have a photo of Teddy in Viewmount Park which you’ll see below.
There is absolute joy vibrating through every ounce of Teddy’s being in this moment when he found a playmate that day in the park.
I thought all dogs love to run and chase the ball, but the owner of that little dog with the pink jacket told me that nothing’s guaranteed in the park and that a lot of dogs just sit around and graze.
When you look at this photo of Teddy running for his life, ask yourself what lights you up in the same way?
In this moment Teddy knows of no war, economic stress, or in-laws. All he needs is an orange ball made by Chuck-It and an open pasture to roam free. What is your Chuck-It and open field that gives you the same sense of calm and Serenity Now?
For me, a big part of that is simply being up in the morning, doing a bit of yoga and meditation, and enjoying my coffee with some writing on my iPad keyboard.
Yes, playing music does some of that, but it’s really that quiet time before the world wakes up. In these moments, I am like some sort of man in a coffee commercial from the 80s.
I am invisible until the first email shows up.
Three Ideas from My Notebooks
The quest to find purpose and meaning can be elusive. A good way to jumpstart this process is by simply embarking on the process of finding interesting projects. Look at the current projects that you’re working on - which could even include something with your family - and ask yourself what are the interesting projects that I want to work on? How about a juicy project? Or a Leonardo DaVinci style project? They come in all shapes and sizes. Some light you up and some do nothing for you.
Weekly Plans used to evade me because I thought that I had to figure out what to do on each day before the week starts. The simplest way to do a weekly plan is by just writing out everything you want to accomplish this week. Then you can decide to slot them into days of the week. On Friday you will review what you wrote out on Sunday or Monday and evaluate if it was realistic.
Instead of asking yourself why the universe likes to shit on you all the time1, ask yourself how you can make use of these challenges that come up every few days, weeks or months. Ask yourself what they are teaching you. Learn to ask questions in a way that brings you to productive outcomes rather than just sitting there and complaining.
This Week’s Track: Revelation
This one was made in about two or three sittings. The first sitting was a session where I made an interesting loop on the lap steel guitar which serves as the bed.
And then on the next sitting, I went in and developed it a bit further with new layers. This one has a gospel feel to it with the organ and the slow-moving chord progression.
Every time you sit down to work on a piece of music, new lessons get revealed to you. They are like working on small little math problems. Bit by bit things click into place. Everyone can make music if they simply focus on these math problems and work through the resistance.
Find it on Spotify, Apple Music or search most streaming services to save it to your library.
Thanks for reading, feel free to write back or leave a comment.
Pack in your bagels today and make them count!
See you next week,
Elliott
I believe we’re all getting shat on at the same rate. It’s how you respond to this cosmic bird poop that sets us apart from one another.