It's been a busy summer but autumn (my favorite time of year) is looking even busier. We played Stir Fry Music Revival on Saturday (pics coming soon), we have our show and cd signing at Best Buy tomorrow (Weds 9/8) and then we rock Virago Friday 9/10 :) We've been thinking of renaming the band though we can never really agree on anything. The trio is about the three parts that come together to make a whole and using my name for the band name sometimes misrepresents us in a way. It's not all about ME! People will come out and take photos and most of them will be of me leaving us with none of the full band, interviewers will call me for the interview, sometimes press leaves out the word trio altogether! So, we are brainstorming. I like Art of Being & Steve seemed to like it too but we haven't revealed it to Mike yet. Nothing is in stone but I like this name for our band b/c our music is personal, spiritual (not in a religious way) & all about connecting to something powerful within ourselves which connects us to one another. In this day and age, it isn't easy to just BE. Take away the computers, cel phones, bills, taxes, jobs, drama, redundant patterns etc etc and there lying beneath the pile of meaningless stuff is you. None of the things I just listed represent you or your true inner self. These things bury us if we allow them to. I dont believe we were designed to do many of the things we find ourselves tied down to doing. When I look into the large open sky and completely free my mind of all else but listening to the wind, the insects, birds, the water nearby or just the simple silence, that is when I feel free. I have to remind myself everyday of what is truly important in life. For me, it is the relationships I build with people, how I contribute to this place we inhabit, how I can influence people in a positive way, how I treat people, my energy and my happiness...every action has a consequence and every action affects someone. I want the people around me to feel good, content and in tune, connected and experiencing the calm that can be. We all get caught up in everyday things that sometimes puts our true selves and purposes in the back seat. Being aware of this is the first step and making yourself a real priority is the second. Sometimes when I find myself in a large sea of people, I watch and I think wow, I'm connected to every single one of these people & it's overwhelming. So, the Art of Being would hopefully remind people to simply BE and put all those other unimportant things aside to allow themselves to shine and be shone upon. I know I need that reminder! And it feels good when I focus on that, it makes a difference in how I behave and what I strive for in this life, learning to simply be...
"To be or not to be, that is the question."
William Shakespeare
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.