Your Lessons, My Life, and Music

             As far as a unifying idea for this post, I don't have one. As far as Your Lessons goes, I hope it will one day become this:   A community where people learn about music and enjoy it's ability to bring joy to the different people who it also brought together.

             I've been playing guitar for 17 years. More importantly to me, I played through middle school, high school, and through college.  The pivotal experiences in my life have revolved around my relationship with music and that instrument. That relationship helped defined a large portion of who I would become. Music has been something I've carried in my pocket at all times since then.  It was there while I was learning how to live.
                I'm the happiest I've ever been and its a different brand of happy.  Its aged... it has a story...and most importantly, it's far less fleeting than any happiness I've ever experienced. Some people struggle more than others because of circumstances out of their control, but so many people create their own struggles out of thin air.  It would take a psychologist to list all the reasons people do that, but despite the reasons, it actually DOES frequently happen. I know this because I've done it myself and watched others while they did it . Art in the form of music saved me from a life of creating artificial struggles.
                I realize that the summation of my experiences has brought me to where I am and I'm really glad to be here.  I say that because I was told it wouldn't ever happen by so many people.   I've been told by hoards of people, from truly varying backgrounds, that there will never be a point in your life where you'll feel like you've arrived.  I've heard that there will always be a struggle for everyone just around the corner.  I can't disagree more.  I think people say that to make themselves feel more comfortable not making the decisions they know they should. I've been lucky to have had relationships that showed it was possible, but at the very least, I was around a select few, who may not have experienced being content, but did believe it was possible.  I'm very glad for that.   In short, music taught me how to be positive.
                     It taught me to be positive when people say you shouldn't be.  I learned that there's a bright side to everything. I've learned that whether you view people as inherently good or evil, you should treat people the same.Good.  and... I learned that you do this, not for their sake , but for your own. Happiness is a goal of mine, but its not just about that. I think being happy is easier when you choose not to learn and more difficult as you learn more.  I want both.  I always want to be happy learning and experiencing new things and I think I know how.  To me, an experience is like a puzzle. You complete the puzzle when you see the good in the experience.
                 The idea of community is very important to me and I learned how to be a part of one from music.  People coming together and functioning as a unit is a powerful force. Notice how I didn't qualify it...groups aren't always good... so choose well.
                    I learned ;(that cant be how you use a semi-colon..or spell it) how to  respect yourself and others equally, follow even when it doesn't make immediate sense, lead when it doesn't make immediate sense, logic is very important but its not everything, how to be yourself, how to act, how to love people, teamwork, the importance of perspective and bias, that we choose how we react more than we would like to admit, the importance of mistakes, its not what happens to you its how you react, listening helps you learn and it reminds people they're important, hard play is as important and maybe more important than hard work, true education=reading different types of books and hanging out with different types of people, 
                 I started writing this post as a way to figure out and show what I really wanted for Your Lessons to be, but the more I've written I've realized I don't think I can put it into more than just a few words without narrowing the scope of what It could be. I feel very separate from it despite the obviously important role I play in it. I think that's important.  I teach all day but I learn all day as well.  Music has brought me the purest form of happiness, and although I'm sure there are other ways to obtain this happiness,  this is the path  I'm most familiar with.  I will always teach music. As far as a unifying idea for this post, I don't have one. As far as Your Lessons goes, I hope it will one day become this:    A community where people learn about music and enjoy its ability to bring joy to the different people who it also brought together.  Hey wait...I can paste this to the top of the post:)

by Blake Aaron Russell
                   


Please add my Google profile to your circles!