Music in a New Light

So, for the last few years I've been trying to abstain from music. I say "abstaining" because I truly felt I was in many ways addicted to it. Anytime I was feeling something (or NOT wanting to feel something) I would dive into music to indulge or attempt to change those feelings. My aspiration at this point is to observe those feelings and not try to change them, hold onto them, push them away.

In many ways, it had also become an ego game for me- especially the whole idea of "this band is cooler than that one" or this music is "more underground" or whatever...

Since getting back to the US this spring, I've started listening to some music and really trying to connect it to my life in a different way than before. I'm approaching it more like poetry and how humans connect to our basic goodness (something I aspire to continually connect with). I love hearing the lyrics that dance around this same idea, dropping ego and being with what is...or even more simply, the sharing of human life and the stories we are involved in.

I don't know what the artist's intentions are, I'm guessing they aren't trying to transcend attachment to these stories, but hearing the beauty of these tales from this perspective is quite amazing for me. Ray LaMontagne is someone I really appreciate now- he's a great story teller and does beautiful things with words.

From, "Be Here Now"

"Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness."