Weekly Lovelies: Currently Clicking Week #9

Every week, I gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. There are plenty of people out there doing big things and small things. Some of these are practical, some are inspiring. I have spent the last few days at home sick as a dog with a kid that has been under the weather as well. This marks the first sickness since I was pregnant. Not fun. Not fun at all. But, here are some links to boost my mood and cause me to think about something other than the fact that I'm supposed to sing at a conference tomorrow and don't know if I can because I've been so sick. Ugh. 

1. 101 Tips to Make Your Life Easier. We all need these at some point. To continue with life tips....31 Ideas for a Sparkling Home.
2. Some local musicians just released a worship record that is so refreshing to me. The hubs and I saw them last Sunday. Good people. Listen and purchase Loudharp's record here. I promise you won't be disappointed  The song, "The Nearness of You," wrecks me completely every single time.
3. I'm seriously crushing on this Modern Bohemian House Tour.  And this Mid-Century Modern House Tour.
4. I recently became a mom. I have the battle scares to prove it. Some of them will probably never disappear, but they are a constant reminder of my little one and I wouldn't have it any other way. Here are 16 Real, Beautiful Women in Every Stage of Pregnancy. Does contain nudity, but I think it's beautiful. Don't act like I didn't warn you. Also, along the same vein, 4th Trimester Bodies. Becoming a mom is a powerful thing. I think it needs to be celebrated even when our jeans don't fit like they used to. It's not worth freaking out about. 
5. 100+ Tips for Frugal Living: How to Get Thrifty and Save Money. Posts like this are my jam. I'm a total nerd for stuff like this. Now, if I could get to the point of actually practicing all of these...
6. As a songwriter, I struggle sometimes with pulling from my past so much when I write because it was a much darker time than the life I live now. This article perfectly paints the picture of that struggle: How to Live a Creative Life (Without Ending Up Depressed, Drunk, or Dead.) 

This Past Week: In A Funk

Do you ever have a week where you just feel thrown off? Nothing seems to get deep down into your bones to challenge you every day you wake up? Life is routine and that's just not enough. There must be more. 

This past week was one of those for me. In a funk and one that I didn't try too hard to get out of. I don't like these weeks, I don't enjoy those days like I want to, and I feel the need to make this next week so much better. 

Life is fine. That's about it. Nothing too extraordinary or life changing. It's in weeks like this past one that I need to put my dedication and thirst for the creative in over drive or I will surely succumb to all things ordinary and routine. 

I went to bed early most nights, also in a fight against getting the sickness that has been sweeping through our little home. I picked up the house, I wiped down the counters, I folded the laundry. I spent too many countless minutes watching mindless drab on the television. I went to work, did my job, and went home to prepare to start the same cycle the next day.

It was only 8:30pm. 

I don't need weeks like that one. I want to feel alive, like I'm challenging myself every minute that I can. I want to wake up and write. I want to drink a latte on a slow morning and do the best job I can do at my place of work. I want to work my muscles and my mind, stretching them to find a strength I didn't know I could possess. 

I want that for this next week. 

The only glimpse that shook me out of my rut was the fact that yesterday I picked up a guitar and I sat down at my keyboard. My husband and I played through my music. I have blisters on my hands that signify the fact that I haven't done these things in far too long. My instrument felt foreign for the first few songs and then I was set free. I felt the rush of something that I hadn't put my heart into for far too long. 

I need more days like that. I love that I am actually able to play music with my husband. 

I hope the songs don't become so foreign to me anymore, I hope the new ones present themselves in every hour of every day. I need that breath of fresh air, that feeling of blisters forming on my fingertips.

So many blisters. 

Being creative in life is the only way I avoid the feeling of being in a funk. 

Here's to a new week. 

We Must Travel in the Direction of Our Fear



Source Unknown, found via Pinterest

These are the words that I need to read today.

Some fears....

 

1. Starting my own business.

2. Becoming strong.

3. Writing songs for another album.

4. Writing a book.

5. Building a band again. Booking some shows.

Life of a Musician: Calloused Hands

I’ve wondered many times in my life why I continue to be a musician. Bands have come and gone, musicians and friends have done much of the same. We all keep going on living our lives in our little corner of the world and songs slowly fade away into the years that have gone by. Our voices have become quieter over the years and our instruments have gathered dust. 

Yet, still I always return to these things. No matter where I seem to be in my life, there is an aching that always takes me back to that place, to that guitar, to those piano keys. I’d like to think that I could run away from them forever; for what reason I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s the idea of being able to conquer something that has been my ghost for so long. It has followed in my footsteps through every downfall and every triumph of my life. It has been my constant companion when I couldn’t see three feet in front of me and only wanted to turn back and run away as fast as my feet would carry me. 

My hands ache to have those calloused hands that signify the long days playing a guitar. I long to be able to close my eyes and let my hands guide my heart and soul across the piano keys. I’ve come to places in my life where if I didn’t put pen to paper and gotten the lyrics out of my soul, I would have surely gone crazy. There have been times where I can’t seem to write fast enough. Where the lyrics pour out of me from places in my heart that I didn’t even know existed. Then there are the seasons, much like the last few years, where I have to fight with everything within me just to pen a few lines.  Life has a funny way of dictating the flood or the famine. 

I do believe as an artist it is important to be heard. I also believe that these words and the progression of notes were meant to not only reside in my basement or in the pages of my tattered moleskine. My sanity, the point in which I feel truly alive, is when I open my mouth and let those songs live. If only it were that easy most of the time. It is a struggle, a daily battle between not having enough time in the day and having the life sucked out of me in the office. It is a process, one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It is an aching, where one feels their heart strings pulled as they walk right past the piano and out the door to live their adult life. 

Today, I realize the importance of not running away from that ache. 

I'm Thankful For: The Creative

I'm thankful for......

Music. Art. Photography. 

All of the amazing people that have been a part of my journey as a song-writer. 

All of the late night recording sessions and the chance to build something with someone else. 

All of the songs, the gigs, the laughs, the difficult times.

The moment when I capture an aspect of someone else's existence through the sound of a shutter. 

The glazed over eyes after editing photographs for hours upon hours. 

The back porch song writing sessions, the lyrics poured out from our hearts, and the coming together as a band of people that truly love each other. 

The simple fact that day in and day out, I have the opportunity to do something that I love, something that I couldn't possibly live without, and something that will always be knitted to my very soul. 

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.

Ray Charles

Setlists and Tea

Tonight, I will be playing a solo show at Everyday Joe's. I will be playing a really old song, called "Come and Go." I haven't played that song in a set in years. I wrote it around the age of 18, but decided it was necessary to include it. I will also be introducing a brand new, never before heard song, called "August." Truthfully, song writing doesn't come to me as easy as it once did. In all of times when I was writing far more than I am now, I was heartbroken, absolutely at the end of my rope, and that was all I knew to do and a way to conquer what I was facing. Life is different now. Life is good. Life is very good. The only disappointing part is the fact that the songs don't seem to come like they used to, I have to fight for them. I have to search them out in the caverns of my soul and hope I've found something I can use and play through. 

But, needless to say, I am looking forward to tonight. This morning was spent with cups of tea and writing, rewriting, and rewriting again, a setlist for tonight. 

The set is as follows....

So Very

Come and Go

Home

No Where's Home

Two Weeks from Yesterday

August

Move on

Days of Summer

Standing By

Chasing the Change

Thunder

You Were the One