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One of the ways my husband and I enjoy spending our time together is being creative. The other night I sat down on the dining table where we’ve been butt glued to the chair to create. My husband has been working on his album project that he’s been producing, writing, engineering and curating for the past 3 years. Then there’s me with my writing. I had my headphones on listening to music and I got in maybe a few sentences when I just didn’t have the words anymore. My body didn’t want to stay sitting in a chair. Instead, I started full body listening to the music playing in my ears. I decided I was going to stop writing, go outside on the balcony, look at the stars and take a few breaths.
Within minutes, I found myself getting completely lost in the music.
I stood up and danced.
Not the TikTok step-by-step kind of dancing.
But the wild, loosy goosey, free spirited, breeze blowing through your hair kind of dancing.
The kind of dancing that if people were watching you, they might think you’ve lost it, they might be wondering if you’re okay. I swayed, I swirled, I spun, I shook, I stomped and I kept dancing. I kept dancing under the star lit sky like no body and their mother were watching. I could feel the excitement from all the little cells in my body brewing up and up. I danced until my heart started to feel like it grew 3x larger. I danced until my tendons became completely loosened and relaxed. I danced until I became so consumed in the beating of the music that I became one with it. I danced like it was my ecstasy.
I made my way over into the living room and the dancing persisted, smiling cheek to cheek, eyes lightly closed and savoring the moment like it was a midnight summer in 2003. I came in panting to him saying “I just had the time of my life dancing” and shared my experience.
It was one of those nostalgic kind of moments, the kind of moment that you look back on 15 years from now and still remember how it made you feel. The vibrant young woman dancing on the balcony, completely present in the moment while her baby was sound asleep under the moonstruck sky. You will remember how deeply in love you are with life. How the zest, the passion, the waves of enchanting joyousness moved through you.
I asked him how his music was going and he asked me if I wanted to listen.
As I put the comfy, cushioned headphones snug over my ears, I felt giddy inside.
It was going to be my first time listening to a completely mixed and mastered version of the song that I’ve heard since he wrote it in 2021.
Listening was an experience. Every sound that I heard was crafted and produced by him. He turned nothing into something. He turned his ideas that came from him living in the moment into art. What a true masterpiece! I said to him “you’re one great producer.”
And he said, “Wow, it’s interesting you say that. Before I sat down, I got into my head about comparing my work with other producers who have already been there done that.” So instead of lamenting on it, he made a conscious effort to tell his mind differently.
Before he sat down, he said to himself “I am the greatest producer in the world.”
And those words, the thoughts that re-routed in his brain, became the reason that he wrote this incredible piece that I was now listening to.
I said to him, “Well what if you are the greatest producer in the world? What if you just don’t know it yet because your audience hasn’t found you but what if they’re out there and what if they’ve been waiting to hear the kind of music you’re creating?”
Then I asked him the words that would spark a million miles of possibilities.
“What if you’re God’s best kept secret?”
He looked at me like he was having a light bulb moment, as if something clicked hard in his head and grounded itself into his body. He looked at me like somewhere deep down in his bones, he knew this. But it was his mind, his pre-conditioned, primal mind that that told him something different.
It landed into my body the same time it landed into his.
That question makes me think about us, you and I and our human experience as creative, multi-faceted gifted beings. It makes me think about many people out there are walking around with these treasured gifts inside of them waiting to be unlocked.
What if the barista that makes your coffee every morning is the greatest singer of our time?
What if the server that waits on you and brings you food is greatest actress of all time?
What if the oddest cousin in your family is the Einstein of our era?
What if the cashier checking out your groceries is the greatest businessman of all time?
What if the stay at home mom neighbor you have happens to be the greatest writer of all of time?
What if you are God’s best kept secret?
But you just didn’t know it yet.
If you knew this to be true, how would you treat yourself?
How would you talk to yourself?
How would you walk, breathe and act towards your gifts?
How would we treat each other?
What if part of our work on Earth was to undo all the societal programming and the thousands of years of generational trauma so we can uncover our gifts and use them to serve others in this lifetime?
What if everything you’ve ever been through, every failure, every toxic relationship, every let down moment you’ve ever had was meant to make you dig deeper and advance you towards your gifts?
What if it’s hiding right underneath your nose this entire time and it’s so close that you wouldn’t even think to seek it?
It’s one question to ask yourself.
But one question that transcends every doubt you’ve ever had in your mind
and invites you to think about things differently.
It invites you back to remember a time where you felt connected to something—
a time when you were naive, innocent, attuned to your child like nature.
A time where you were exactly who you were meant to be before the fast-paced culture taught you differently.
One question that sparks a million possibilities.
As I sit here and wrap up this draft, I thought how differently my night would’ve looked if I forced myself to stay seated and push the words to come out. I thought about what would’ve happened if I prioritized productivity, speed and efficiency to just get something out there for the sake of getting something out there.
This night would’ve never happened.
And these words were produced as a result of getting up and living in the moment.
It makes me think about the creative journey. How so often, the game of ping pong in our heads about “what we should do or shouldn’t do? will they like this or will they like that” can completely put out our creative fire.
But the art isn’t created from force.
The art is created from flow—
A surrender into the moment that is revealing itself right in front of us.
A conscious effort to tell our programmed mind that we’re not going to should ourselves into efficiency and productivity if it doesn’t serve our overall well-being.
Creativity is learning to view the life we’re living as art.
So much so that it’s not something we seek, it’s something we are, something we become.
And as we live our lives—
as we fully immerse ourselves in the unfolding of it—
we will uncover our gifts and we will express it in a way that feels like home to those receiving it.
I will never forget that one airy spring night in May where I softly breathed the air into my lungs and had a spontaneous solo silent disco dance party and that somehow, it lead me here.
Earlier that day, I came home to a box at the door with my sister’s name on it. It was a gift and included a letter she wrote to me acknowledging my journey as a mother so far. Acknowledging the many ways it’s bonded, deepened and rekindled our relationship as sisters to what it’s meant to be. I only read a few sentences in when tears drops slid down my face and landed on my chest.
Then I wrote a poem for a my daughter inspired by a day at Lake George.
It was one of those nights where I experienced the vastness of this human experience.
I sobbed, I laughed, and I danced the night away.
What a trip this life is.
What a gift.
I hope this piece awakens something inside you.
I hope it reminds you what a wild adventure the life ahead of you gets to be— so much to learn, receive, offer, share and express.
And however you choose to exercise your creativity, I hope you never stop living for the moment.
May you turn your life into a masterful piece of art and make the world go round.
May you keep on dancing the dance of life.
That’s all for now.
Sending you so much love and then some.
Warmly,
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