About.
My journey with music started when I was very young. I was a boy who would go to the garage and sing with my toys in a pile of sand on the floor. My earliest recollection is that all I ever wanted to do was sing. My mother told me she never worried about me getting into trouble; I would stay in my special place for hours on end.
However, I don’t ever remember my parents encouraging the gift of music, primarily because the lifestyle of my musician father had caused much pain for my mother. It was my older sister, Susan who took the time to instill into her ten year old brother the craft of music. She exposed me to the world of harmonies as we would sing along with the songs. Thus began the lifelong wrestling with the music; a voice in one ear to discourage, and my heart in the other to follow.
In 2012, I suffered a stroke. I lost the ability to speak. I couldn’t sing or even find a harmony. I had much trouble signing my name. I struggled to play my guitar. The course of the last five and a half years has been a battle to regain what was lost. My music is the culmination of that struggle.
It is the journey of “never forget where you’ve been-just don’t stay there” that is at the core of this story. I recognize that there are certain traumas that eliminate any chance of recovering what was lost. Would I maintain my viewpoint if I had forever lost the ability to speak or play my guitar again? I don’t know. All I know is that life is not about what happens to you, but what you do with your circumstances. The discipline of choosing life instead of death has made all the difference in embracing a life well lived. I would be a liar if I said it’s been easy. I would also be a liar if I said the result of choosing life wasn’t worth the struggle, regardless of the circumstance.
It is within this frame of reference that I offer this story and the music that accompanies it to anyone who has suffered the loss of something cherished. My desire is that it brings hope to the hopeless and a balm to soothe the hurting heart.
