My last blog post was about a songwriter challenge that I signed up for. In short, I didn't do it...not one bit of it, actually. ironically, I wrote a lot of songs during that time period.
What I figured out was that I needed a break from collaborating, from pouring into other people, other projects...not forever, but for a time. What I have really been craving is inspiration. I think that in order to get that, you need to introduce something new to the mix, and for me that meant stepping away from a commercial and collaborative approach for a time. I am still on this journey, but this was a realization I had, and thus, my goal to be a keen participator in a cool challenge had to be set aside. The songs I wrote, I wrote for me and for my church. And there are some scraps and scratchings on pieces of paper, and rambling notes in "TextEdit" on my Mac...stepping stones to more new songs, perhaps.
I've also been feeling for a while now that I need to go deeper, and to write about loss. I've been through years of tremendous loss, some public and some intensely private. I've been terrified to "go there", and, as such, have felt very stuck. I wonder if it's because there are just some valleys we need to pass through to wherever it is we are supposed to be going. If we don't go there, we get stuck where we are. This can end up feeling very isolating, and things that "worked" for a while, for a time, don't work anymore...We've got to keep moving.
Little by little, I am finding my way. Trying to figure out what can stay, and what must go moving forward.
Thanks for reading...
JJ
What I figured out was that I needed a break from collaborating, from pouring into other people, other projects...not forever, but for a time. What I have really been craving is inspiration. I think that in order to get that, you need to introduce something new to the mix, and for me that meant stepping away from a commercial and collaborative approach for a time. I am still on this journey, but this was a realization I had, and thus, my goal to be a keen participator in a cool challenge had to be set aside. The songs I wrote, I wrote for me and for my church. And there are some scraps and scratchings on pieces of paper, and rambling notes in "TextEdit" on my Mac...stepping stones to more new songs, perhaps.
I've also been feeling for a while now that I need to go deeper, and to write about loss. I've been through years of tremendous loss, some public and some intensely private. I've been terrified to "go there", and, as such, have felt very stuck. I wonder if it's because there are just some valleys we need to pass through to wherever it is we are supposed to be going. If we don't go there, we get stuck where we are. This can end up feeling very isolating, and things that "worked" for a while, for a time, don't work anymore...We've got to keep moving.
Little by little, I am finding my way. Trying to figure out what can stay, and what must go moving forward.
Thanks for reading...
JJ