​"All music is made from tension."

In the tension of my own life, I dare myself to stop and listen.

Stop talking.
Stop panicking.
Stop making noise.
Stop trying to fix it.
Stop demanding to understand it.
Stop working to maneuver over it, under it, around it - anything but - through it.

There is this temptation to just cut the chord and be done with it, unknowingly cutting its ability to sing. Instead, I hold myself still and choose to listen. I find that I'm not very good at listening; most often consumed by my own anxious noise. Yet in the practice of listening I begin to hear tones around me that offer to lead me out; tones that are swelling to imminent release.

Tension and release make music.
The only way to get release - is to let go.
Working, striving, pushing, pressing - only creates more - tension.

So what if I let go? Dared to ride the tension into its release instead of wishing it away?

Friends, let's let go.
Let's learn to listen.
To just let it happen.
To let life shake free of a stack of events
- and become to us a song.

Alive in the tension.
Alive in the release.
Alive to the music of our lives.

Some things grow fast.
Other things grow slow.
But nothing grows if it is not first planted.

Don't despise small beginnings.
If you want something to happen -
start small in that direction.
​
Just start.