MeloBliss698

Recently I had the truly amazing pleasure of hearing one of the best artists, Groovelily, perform their unique musical theater piece Striking 12 in New York. Ahead of the show, as the band was warming up, the cause singer/violinist Valerie told us a powerful story. Valerie had recently done with her father at an event as a cantor to rejoice his lifetime contribution. After the performance, an older woman came up to Valerie and told her about how she had played violin as a young child in Germany and how much playing the violin had meant to her. She went on to spell out that whenever her family left the united states throughout the Nazi regime, she was not allowed to bring her beloved violin with her to America since her family feared it'd mark them as Jews. So, she spent my youth, got married, and raised a household. While she urged her daughter to play the violin (and he grew up to be a artist), she never indulged or rekindled her passion to play the violin again. When the woman finished telling her story, she held Valerie's hands tightly, looked her in the eyes, and emphatically said, "Keep on playing."

Each time I hear this story I'm deeply moved (yes, I love the group and have seen this rather recent story multiple times already). I am moved because of my own personal ups and downs being an amateur artist who could think about a million excuses why I'm not good enough to be playing or when there are so many other more considerations to complete how I will not be "wasting" time. I am also moved because I'm inundated with the absolute amount of design, elegance, joy, and interest that's missing these days every day because therefore many people have forgotten their passions and joy for the far more "important" and "serious" business of life.

Set aside a second at this time and consider:

- What actions did you love to be a part of as a kid, teen, or young person? Can you still share in any of those or related activities?

- What did you dream about many wanting to be when you spent my youth?

- What are you doing when you feel the most happy, enthusiastic, or in the movement? When was the past time you spent time doing this?

If you are like the majority of people I understand, you're probably laughing because it has been such a long time since you've done any of these things that you don't even remember or you are muttering numerous excuses as to the reasons you can not be doing these things. Several of those excuses might sound like:

- I do not need time

- You will find more important things to do

- It is difficult to do since I have a wife/husband/mate, job, children, house, an such like.

- There's no way I can actually have what I wanted, it was only a illusion. After all, I am overweight, middle aged, and out of shape and most certainly not planning to become an, NFL, WNBA, Broadway star, or rock musician in this lifetime, so why bother at all.

Well, what if you could have and do what you most enjoy? What if you might get in touch with the substance of what you really needed and then go and do THAT? For example, probably what really appealed to you about becoming a rock musician was making music and sharing it with others. You might reach that goal desire at any age. Grab a vintage instrument you used to play and start to just take lessons again. Learn something new. Volunteer to share your music with kids, seniors, or even a church group. Still another example might be that you liked the spirit of competition and physical challenge inherent in the dream of playing professional sports. Well, you'll have that too! There are many methods for getting toned and remain competitive in sports at any age, while you might not function as the next Lance Armstrong or Serena Williams. I have seen athletes in the Masters section of different activities play with an increase of heart and competitive spirit inside their 70s, 80s, and 90s, than many young professional athletes show. People are personally known by me with demanding careers and families who often compete in triathlons and cycle, run, or walk unknown variety of miles annually for charity. So can you, should they can take action.

My point is - you deserve to own joy, interest, and play in your life. Yes, life could be critical at times and we all have responsibilities, but you owe it to yourself to essentially live a little and give the gift to yourself of anything simply for you. You had be amazed at how only a little bit of time spent regularly on something that feeds your spirit will produce results ten times over in another "more serious" parts of your daily life.

That month, go looking for your most loved violin. Dust off your guitar, football racket, paintbrushes, or writer's mat. Give permission to your self to revive the enthusiasm, get the happiness, and PLAY.