Find The Middle

When I was young I was very over zealous at times; especially when I wanted something. Whether it was food or fun, didn't matter, I had to have it right there and then.
While visiting some friends of our family one Sunday, I was doing my usual ranting and whining, and as usual, it got on everyone's nerves.
At some point my Mother decided that she had had enough of it, and tried to warn me about doing this in front of company...all to no avail. It was in that moment that I crossed to a point of no return.
My Father took me outside and whipped me good. During that session he uttered the words that I'll remember til I'm no longer on this Earth; "be a guest and not a pest."
Herein lies the story of today's posting...
Find the middle.
I learned a very valid lesson that day which I hope serves me at this stage of my life.
Sometime in the quest to further oneself in their chosen field (mine of course is music...) we can become over zealous, and forget that there are many layers of work that need to be done to get where we're going.
You need a balance of belief in yourself, you need the belief of others, you need to be prepared, and you need to be a bit lucky. All of those systems have to find the middle, and when they do (as well as if they do...) you'll find that you can face so much more joy.
For musicians we could enjoy the freedom to express ourselves our way. For the fan, they can feel connected to us thereby creating a following, which falls in the category of belief from others. For the people who could possibly fund that dream, they could feel as though their monies are well spent. See, we're all coming to the same corner.
It's very sad to me when fans go out of their way to help us and we turn a blind eye toward them. Not only does it create a completely bad vibe, but it undermines and jeopardizes your efforts to have people come through those doors, and fill up those seats to hear you.
Water is a necessary element to make flowers bloom, when a drop hits a petal, that's when they have found the middle. One does not exist without the other.
So remember always what my Dad said, and don't get yourself whipped by life. Walk slowly, speak softly, but earnestly, raise your water can up and water your flower. Sit your water can down, relax and love what you helped to create.
My friends, go out and find the middle.

Support Live music today tomorrow and always.

I Dream a World

I've spent alot of time in my life just getting on with it. I mean to say that I've given quite a bit of thought to looking at my life from the spectator seat. That's not necessarily a bad thing per se' it's just that I wonder at times how I got to this point.
I led a fairly normal childhood; it was full and fun and mysterious, all at the same time, but I used to lie in my yard in the Bronx and be perplexed as hell about my life, and wonder just what I'm wondering today. I'd look up at the clouds and imagine a world beyond Mulvey Avenue. I guess at heart what I really am is an explorer, and maybe even a pioneer.I actually dreamed beyond my fence and saw my life as fulfilling and spiritually fulfilled.
Most of my dreams have come true, even though a few times they've been deferred.
I'm trying really hard to stay positive, but just now and again I feel like going off.(don/t worry, that's not where I am currently...).That same sense of wonder at times makes me wonder. I'm proud that I have survived so much, but at what cost? I've lost family, friends and now a second wife and child but something deep compels me to get on with it, to keep on keepin' on as it were.
That something is music...I feel it so deeply that it keeps me here, and pushes me to carry on even when I don't want to.
Why is that ? The truth is I feel that Allah has me here to reach out to folks and tell them that it's going to be alright.
I wanna cry sometimes ( and I do...) at the thought of where I see the world heading. It saddens me to know that in this age of technlogy and closeness we can't find the one thing that would fulfill us all...peace.
It's hard to think that of all the great songs out there in the world that we still treat each other like we don't care about each other.
The really crazy thing is that we can't go anywhere else. We may explore space, but right this minute we can't live there. Earth is all we've got, yet we act as though the heck with it, I'm just gonna go to the Moon and live, or some other planet.,
The simple fact is we have to dream a world, we have to see that person right next to us as a viable life, and realize that we are all we've got; warts and all.
That poor young man at Rutgers should still be with us. My Vickie should still be with us.
In Islam we say that man plans and Allah plans, but Allah is the best of planners; but I'm sure that even Allah didn't plan on us being this divisive, and He created the world.
My heart goes out to  that young man's family, please know that real people loved and cared about your son,. I hope that out of this tragedy someone somewhere will see me, and love me for me (metaphorically speaking...), and realize that I dream a world.
Please go out today and listen to live music, and just get on with it.

Support Live music today tomorrow and always, and use it to heal yourself.