Music is Happiness

I realized something very important today.  Last night, I wrote a song and posted it to my SoundCloud account (http://soundcloud.com/epicjuicebox).  At work, a close friend of mine approached me and sang significant praise for my work.  While I was explaining to him how I composed and recorded the material on my own, a little light bulb shone over my head.  The skill I have to sit down with a guitar and create is not a skill that many people possess.  Answering questions about what, to me, seemed a rather elementary effort and explaining how I achieved such an explicitly impressive feat, I thought to myself, "I've really done something special here!"  It's not uncommon for me to undervalue my skills and abilities, but with this I feel I've done myself a great injustice.  To take a talent so unique and expressive as this and write it off as nothing extraordinary is the very definition of folly!

When people ask me to tell them something interesting about myself, the fact that I am a musician is not always the first thing that comes to mind.  Why is that?  Perhaps because I think I have a lot to learn yet.  That I'm nothing special.  Now, I'm not here to tell you, my readers, that I am God's gift to music - by any means.  On a given day, I would argue quite the contrary!  But situations like what occurred today occur more often than I give credit.  And for the longest time, I have unwittingly downplayed my gift.  No longer!

We all have something we're good at, and we all bring something to the table that nobody else can bring.  That's what makes us unique!  So my call to you today is to think about that one thing that sets you apart - that makes you who you are and that nobody on this earth could ever dream of emulating.  My call to you is to be PROUD of that one thing!  Because the second we forget how incredible our contribution to this life is, we begin to die.  And to die before your time is the greatest of all injustices...

That said, I'd like to dedicate this post to my brother, Adam.  His gift lives on with those of us who knew him best.  And I would consider myself fortunate that when my time came, those who knew me best would say the same thing of me.  I miss you, little brother!  We all do!