004 | Intentions & Doing Work That Matters to Us
Writing you from THE GREY COUCH in my room
8:14 AM
Dear Friends,
It is Monday, the start of another week, and I am all kinds of excited for this week’s work. This new resolve to “fall in love with making music” this year has given me so much clarity, and indeed, everything is now filtered under this intention.
I was listening back over my Human to Human EP, which I think I may release on my birthday, April 24th, because of the significance it has carried in my own story. While I have always tried to be honest and bring my full self to the music I have created and released over the past three years, this project is the first where I can say the music has wholly been an extension of myself, me living through the music. I honestly think I would not have been okay if I hadn’t written this EP.
As I listened back over these songs, I was struck with the truth that they needed to be written, for my own health and expansion, as well as for them to exist in the world. I’m thankful I was the vessel for their birth. Creating them and sitting with their sounds and concepts has been personally important and challenging, and these songs continue to call me to honest living and to lean in to the joys and discomfort of being fully alive.
I wonder what new songs will be brought forth moving forward this year. What will they sound like? What will they feel like? I noticed as I set goals for the year, this one phrase kept coming up...
“I want to make music that makes me feel.”
And really what I was saying, was that I need to write music that is honest, that has a part of me in it. I can't be separate from it. It has to be me. It has to be an extension of myself.
I had the most unexpected conversation with two strangers at a coffee shop yesterday, and one of the questions we discussed was this...
“What work are you doing right now that matters to you?”
One of the gentleman said it was to learn how to be a father. I think my most important work this year is to learn how to let songwriting be like breathing.
As I sit here thinking of you all, I wonder, what work lies before each of you? Do you know what work matters to you this year? Do you have a sense of what your most important work is? Are you figuring it out? Do you know what it is but are afraid to begin?
It’s taken me a long time to figure out what work matters most to me, at least for right now. I suppose I only really nailed it down last week! And even though I know what work I need to lean in to and that there will certainly be so much life there, it is still hard. I read something in Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel this morning that gave me strength.
At this point in his journal, he has 3 weeks left of writing before he will finish East of Eden. It so happens he was also writing on a Monday morning, and on this Monday morning, on September 24, 1951, he writes this at the end of his entry about his work for the day...
“Very hard to start—very hard—almost impossible.”
And then he starts writing. I find such comfort in that.
Whether you know what work matters to you or you are doing the work of figuring it out, know that it is very hard to start, almost impossible, but you can begin.
May you find courage for this week’s work,
Shel
P.S. I was thinking it would be nice for you all and healthy for me to pick a consistent day each week to send these letters. I thought about it, and Sunday seems like a nice day to get a letter in the “mail”.
I imagine you reading it woth coffee to start you Sunday morning, maybe reading while still in bed, or perhaps sitting with it in the afternoon as you relax. So from here on out, expect a letter from me in your inbox every Sunday morning. And as always, please don’t hesitate to write back. :)
THIS WEEK:
Purchased my last book until I am out of debt. Discipline! I spend way too much money on books, so until I am 100% out of debt, it's the library from here on out! I plan on starting the book tonight.
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World - by Cal NewportListened to this song and was so moved I ended up writing lyrics to a whole new song.
Bern (River Lament) - by De Joie
Cover Image by Martin Marek via Unsplash
