Living in the ballpark
A friend once professed to me that they are not thriving lately. And the opposite of thriving is languishing, so that’s likely how they were feeling.
I had to break the unfortunate news to them that thriving doesn’t just happen to you.
A force from above doesn’t randomly select who it will send a lightning bolt of inspiration to and that person gets lit up while everyone else suffers.
You have to take yourself to that place of thriving on your own.
You have to do the work to unblock yourself. For some people, it might mean going on a diet and starting to exercise every day.
Other people might need to have a difficult conversation or two and remove a negative force from their life.
Each person is different, but I would say that for me thriving means I am able to make progress on the things that I want to make progress on.
I don’t feel stuck or existentially constipated.
The goals might not be written down in cement, but they are there in the back of my mind.
When you work towards those goals you naturally start to feel better.
Because when we are off our game, the only person who we let down is ourselves.
Don’t live for the approval of others, but just live in the ballpark of what you value and what you want from this life.
You don’t have to be at home plate or in a corporate box, you just have to be in the ballpark.
New Solo Guitar Recording Available Now
This one I recorded this week on my PC-less setup. It’s improvised but they are bits I’ve worked out before.
The song title refers to being in Malaga, Spain and meeting a group of young locals who invited me out to dinner and I didn’t understand a word of what they were talking about the whole time.
I listened to it in the car on the way to picking up a burrito bowl and made some edits before uploading it online.
48 Hour Sound Art Challenge
Next weekend my friends at New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) are hosting a sound art retreat from October 18-20th at their home base in South River, Ontario.
The 48-hour Sound Art Challenge will take place at Warbler’s Roost, a 14-acre rural, forested and lake-side property in the Almaguin Highlands. NAISA will provide assistance with access to its supply of equipment. Participating artists should bring their own portable recording devices and computers and other tools necessary for their creation.
More info here, and watch videos of recent projects from the organization on NAISAtube.
Thanks for reading and see you next week 😀
E