Lately, with the decline and fall of the music industry and all, I’ve been doing this “exercise” in the mornings, when I first wake up… No phone, no email, no anything -just sit still and shut up. It’s basically meditation, but I’m calling it listening.
The point is that the last year was pretty tough on those of us that are full time music makers, so naturally many of us are considering our place in all of this. Well, I’ll speak for myself. I’ve been inspired recently by guys like Brian Johnson and similar stories. Brian sold a successful social networking web site and decided to move to Bali and start Philosopher’s Notes. Basically, he’s going to summerize to others what he’s teaching himself. More importantly, to get to this point he really LISTENED. Not to others, but to himself and possibly what the “universe” was telling him. And now he lives in BALI, which sounds pretty rad.
There are a whole host of bloggers that are using our flaccid economy to encourage people to follow their gut and passion. “Things aren’t going well? Use it! You’re already fired, you might as well start on a new path of something that really moves you!” Which I think is fantastic. The more people are doing what they want in this world, the better for everyone, I feel.
So, I’ve been lying in bed each morning questioning my current path. Not in a depressed, hopeless way (I’m actually quite pleasent when I wake up,) but in an honest – “I’m listening if there is something else I’m supposed to be doing with this life. I’m available.”
Well, I’ll tell you what keeps happening. I keep getting “interrupted” by what sounds like the voice of Peter Griffin poking his head around the door frame saying, 
in that irritating, repetitive Peter Griffin kind of way. I usually just brush it aside, because hey – at the age of 22 I tossed my medical school acceptance letter in the trash and decided on a life in music. I mean, I did it already, so this can’t be what the universe is trying to tell me, right? This is the part where I get real…
Clearing my head again, because having practiced meditation for years I know it works like this. Thoughts arise in the brain and we gently brush them aside, quietly acknowledging and dismissing.
Ok, now that I’m back to emptiness, I can listen – damn. Really?! Are you sure about this? Because, I’m pretty sure that we have been doing this for a while and I don’t see a DB9 out in the driveway of this rented house!
I’d love to make a record right now with a kick ass band. What do you say?