Last night I went to see some live jazz. I am lucky that we have excellent jazz bands playing every week a mile from my home, ranging from trios up to big bands. Well last night's quintet were outstanding and the guy on trombone said that, at age eleven, he had heard a recording of a world class trombone player and it sent shivers dowwn his spine. At age eleven! He knew right then he had to learn the trombone and has been playing ever since. As he played and also listened to the other musicians' solo performances, you could see the passion on his face and, in fact, in his whole body. He was living the music - it was coming through him and he couldn't stop it. He was born to do this.
What were you born to do? Many of us do not have the clarity of our trombone player at such an early age and we drift along in life out of touch with our true passion. All my life I have had a strong love of animals and nature. At the age of three I knew all the animals in the PG tips tea card sets. Anyone could test me and I knew them all from Aardvaarks to Tapirs to Wildebeest. I guess as my dad sat with me telling me the names, I wanted to remember them because I had a natural excitement and I came alive when I looked at or talked about animals. Later in life I didn't pursue my love and went for "practical" vocational options. Then when I got my first dog, Hazel, nearly 10 years ago I had that alive feeling again and I absolutely know that, along with nature and spirituality, animals have to be an important part of my life. Our new puppy Daisy is a real joy and the two dogs are getting along so well together. When I am with them I feel in my element.
So for each of us our "music" is something different and actually something unique because our perspective is totally individual. I heard Wayne Dyer quote "Don't Die With Your Music Still Inside You". There are lots of musical metaphors that relate to the way we feel and how we resonate in the world. You feel good when you are "in tune with" something, when you do something joyful it "makes your heart sing", when you are in balance you are "in harmony". This is because we live in a wonderful universe, which means "one song", and together everything is orchestrated to create the whole.
Get in touch with your heart and remember what makes it leap with joy. Then do that - whatever it takes. I honestly believe that it is our life's mission to follow our bliss and do what makes us feel good, and if we all do that it will be a happier world.
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