Curious, Creative & Consistent

"I’m not here in this life to be well balanced or admired. I’m here to be an oddball, eccentric, different, wildly imaginative, creative, daring, curious, inventive and even a tad strange at times. I’m here to pray and chant and meditate and sing and find Creator in a blues riff, a sunrise, a touch or the laughter of children. I’m here to discover ME in all of that. I’m here to add clunky, chunky and funky bits of me to the swirl and swagger and churn of life and living. It demands I be authentic. So when you look out at the world, that’s me dancing in the fields…"

Richard Wagamese (Embers, 2016)

Certainly, I strive for balance, to live in the Medicine Wheel ways (mind, heart, body, spirit), and yet my impulse is to create until the work feels whole, feels at least foundationally manifested. Sometimes this means long hours and extended focus on the work before me. Acknowledgement is also a heart-warming prompt to continue on, I find, while admiration is not essential for motivation.

The path that I have chosen is difficult, often travelled alone, or the long-way-around, yet it it is always meaningful; it is part of the fabric of my purpose. This may seem strange to outsiders, some who question the route, the deviation, the strangeness. But like Wagamese (1955-2017), an Ojibway author, it is a path of creativity and curiosity. Sensing this is part of self-discovery, of honouring authenticity, even the destiny the universe has lined up for me, I consistently endeavour to do this work. This past year, in music practice this means that I have often changed up practice through the exploration of genres (yes, a blues riff, as well as funk, hip hop, jazz, and reggae-influenced grooves). Improvising continues to be a go-to practice, a way of moving through the current mood, challenging myself, while finding joy in sounds that move me. Like Wagamese, I like the "chunky, chunky and funky bits." I also like the old school, 1970s classics; perhaps because I recall my mother listening to pop radio all day while she worked. Driving to the grocery store, taking care of the family business, four kids in tow, the radio was always in the background. The 1970s, music, with its vocal harmonies, instrumental layers, experimentation, guitar riffs, and lyrical storytelling is often missing in today's mainstream music.

As 2022 comes to a close, and with 2023 on the horizon, I anticipate a new year inspired by an evolving creative vision and imagination inspired by the people and places I chance paths with. All in all, a year for weaving another layer of creative authenticity. With these thoughts, I close with a video of a singer/songwriter who became widely known in the 1970s, and who passed to the spirit world in recent weeks.