Life

There is exactly enough time.

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For me, a large key to enjoying life is initiative: Setting my alarm clock so I get up when I want to instead of waking up late; sitting down with a cup of coffee in the morning to relax and reflect instead of absently looking at my phone in bed; responding to work email after I complete my big projects instead of letting my inbox run my day; choosing to have dinner with the kids instead of staying at work until "it is all done"; making a list of what I want to get done in a day and doing those things first. 

There is exactly enough time.

For a long time one of my little traditions has been to make sure I exercise on New Year's Day. It is a small way of mentally setting the initiative for the year, of saying "I'm healthy and active." This small ritual doesn't guarantee anything, but I can look at workout logs for past years and see that, with striking consistency, the mediocre years tend not to have an entry on January 1. 

We have all heard the wisdom that you can't control many things, but you can totally control how you react to them. Similarly, you can't choose everything – or even many of the things – that you have to do, but you can choose to make sure you create time for the things most important to you.

A long while back a couple of good friends gave me a painting that said, in essence, "You can be happy once you realize that there is exactly enough time for the important things in life." Seems like a good affirmation for 2013. Happy New Year!

The irony of improvement.

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You're exactly where you need to be.

When you feel poor, the answer is to give something away.

When you feel tired, the answer is to exercise.

When you feel uninspired, the answer is to create.

When you feel overwhelmed by your to-do list, the answer is to take a break.

When you feel lonely, the answer is to offer friendship. 

When you feel unloved, the answer is to love others regardless.

When you feel lost, the answer is to stop searching and accept where you are.

When you feel that the world is stacked against you, the answer is to radiate gratitude. 

The limitlessness of Reason.

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The holidays are a time of creative renewal for me – the free time, mental relaxation, and annual introspection always result in fresh ideas, perspective, and initiative. Writing and recording music is the equivalent of an emotional work out: It keeps my soul in shape. And so I look forward to the holiday break and the annual influx of imagination it brings.

That said, for me the problem with music (and writing and work and life) has never been a lack of ideas. Rather, that problem is bringing those ideas to completion. Just finish it. That's hard for this tinkering perfectionist to do.

Over the last few days I've been reminded of the admonitions of Stravinsky, who famously wrote about the creative process:

My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself of the chains that shackle the spirit.
Powerful limits.

Powerful limits.

This week I've been recording with Propellerheads Reason, a program that I've had on my hard drive for years but never really taken seriously. When compared to an installation of Logic Pro fully outfitted with plugins from Waves, Native Instruments, and Spectrasonics, Reason has always seemed to me to be, well, limited. And the rack-based system is cute but not very practical. 

But over the last couple of days I've decided to take the advice of Stravinsky and use Reason as a way of forcing some constraints. I have to say, I've loved it. The very things I never liked about Reason – a closed system, limited expansion options, a restricted soundset – have tapped directly into my composition nerve. Plus, the program has dramatically evolved over the last several releases; the mixer and the rack extensions are fantastic. And, Reason doesn't seem to crash. Ever. I can't say the same about Logic, ahem...

It is almost unseemly to suggest that using a program with dozens of built-in effects and instruments, hundreds of tracks, 64-bit processing, and incredibly complex routing options constitutes "imposing limits," particularly when I recorded an entire CD years ago on a system with only eight audio tracks. Still, in the modern world of computer processing that far exceeds most practical uses, I've found Reason to be a nice ecosystem. I hope to post some completed files in the next few weeks.

More than that, I hope that in the new year I remember that the obstacles in front of me are only fuel for creative solutions.

Just breathe...

in

I know the holidays are hectic for most folks, and I suppose they are for me as well. Still, I like having more time in the morning to drink my coffee and peruse my Google Reader feed. (I actually hate Google's aesthetic, so I use the Reeder client for Mac, which I highly recommend.)

Ahhhh.

In any case, this morning I found this surprisingly useful article by Matthew May about three simple ways to quiet the mind: Meditation, pulsing, and daydream walks. I kind of know about all three techniques, but I don't practice any that well. His article is a good, short read for anyone overwhelmed by holiday planning, or for anyone who like me is trying to meet 2013 with a more healthy frame of mind. Worth a few minutes of your time. 

The Age of Questions.

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If we can be sure of one thing, it is that we're living in the Age of Uncertainty.

Our economic outlook seems cloudy as we hear our politicians talk about debt, taxes, and cliffs. Our national security seems suspect as we attempt to unravel ten years of war against an amorphous, unseen, unbeatable opponent. Our mental health seems precarious as we deal with the latest shocks to our safety and preconceptions. Our shared values seem most days to be merely a shared willingness to shout at each other on social media.

When I was in high school I remember asking my mother about the Sixties and early Seventies. I was trying to understand the time period around my birth. Was it as interesting as it looked in the books? "It was hard," she said. "It was troubling."

I can't help but thinking that, whether we like it or not, we are in the same kind of period. Perhaps in ten or twenty years we will look back with nostalgia about the better world that was borne from all of this tumult. But right now it just feels troubling.

I was thinking of all of this yesterday in Mass. Yes, I went to church on a Monday morning -- I can't say I wanted to. I went for the funeral of a friend. Someone killed far too young. So many questions. Too many, actually -- too many to even contemplate. 

As the words of the Catholic Mass washed over me I was reminded of a line in Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. A young man had written the great Bohemian poet Rainer Maria Rilke asking for advice on how to make sense of the world. And we learn that Rilke is just as confused as the rest of us. He writes:

Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Why do children die? Why must we torture each other? Why haven't we learned to practice tolerance? How can we value the contribution of each person without forcing our ways upon one another? How can we create a community that applauds achievement and still encourages kindness?  How can we build a country that aspires to its best qualities rather than reducing to its worst?

These are very difficult questions to live. But this is our role. This is our time. I pray we will live our way to the answers so that our children and grandchildren no longer have these questions to bear.

Perhaps the Mayans were right.

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Perhaps the Mayans were right, and the world is coming to an end. 

And our mistake was not in thinking they were correct, but in thinking that the end would be a blinding flash of light, or a cataclysmic explosion, or a searing fireball. Instead of what the end seems to be: A slow, steady unraveling of sanity...

Friday contemplation: Stargazing with BT.

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Thanks to Peter Kirn at the always amazing Create Digital Music-Motion-Noise blogs for this: A really wonderful, relaxing, inspiring way to spend 15 minutes on a Friday morning. 

I'm a huge fan of all music, and electronic, ambient, and chillout specifically, so this blend of music by BT with photography by Randy Halverson is right up my alley. As Kirn writes:

Over 13 minutes. BT’s “13 Angels On My Broken Windowsill” playing. And nothing but timelapse footage of starscapes above fields and farms on Planet Earth. All of this could be corny, and yet…Nope. It’s a breathtaking virtual-stargazing love song to the Milky Way.

A bit off my usual blogging path, but well worth watching. Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and breathe deeply... 

Thanksgiving.

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Grateful for family most of all.

Grateful for health and the perspective to appreciate it.

Grateful for friends and for laughter.

Grateful for love and hope.

Grateful for work that matters to me, and grateful to matter to my work.

Grateful for the chance to make a difference and the chance to see that difference being made.

Grateful for all of you.

Onwards and upwards. 

Your next four years.

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Whether you're waking up happy or sad, satisfied or dissatisfied, it's a good morning to keep things in perspective. No matter if you supported Obama, Romney, or someone else, I can 100% guarantee you that the person who will have the most influence on your next four years is YOURSELF.

Give yourself a vote of support today by setting aside your usual worries, insecurities, and doubts. Instead, spend a bit of time thinking about what you hope to contribute to the world around you. What's your four-year platform?