Thankful for '23!

Thankful for sooo many things in 2023.....

On stage, December 2023, charity event.

Last year, I wrote a fairly comprehensive piece on being thankful, loaded with a fair bit of detail, professionally speaking.

This year I'd like to focus on something more personal and more general. I do focus on some 2023 highlights in my annual birthday post if you're interested, however....

It is often bragged - in song, poetry, moving pictures, literature, & the like - that one has made it on their own. That no one provided any assistance. That the person clawed out of the gutter and climbed the mountain all on their own.

This is a romantic vision and is, perhaps in some cases, absolutely true. But it isn't true for me.

From my first gigs to the first key to a recording studio door all the way to the day before yesterday, I have been blessed with opportunity and a helping hand from all manner of people - some family, some friends, some almost complete strangers.

I am blessed beyond belief.

And I am as grateful as I can possibly be.

I definitely have NOT done it all on my own. The life of a self-employed musician is hard, but mostly its hard on those around you. Every woman with whom I've had a failed relationship (that's ALL of them) and every woman I've ever been involved with will attest to that. My kids and my family and my friends can attest to it as well. Its a volatile industry and an incredibly stressful lifestyle for those who love us....or even just like us a little bit, for a little while - a few moments in time.

So, yes, it can be hard personally and financially and about any other way one can think. But its also incredibly rewarding, incredibly fulfilling, incredibly....magical. And it stuns me every day to realize this has been my life for decades.

On stage, June 2023, Woodsongs.

And I never could have done it on my own. 

So cheers to YOU, everyone who has ever lent a helping hand (financially, emotionally, or let me crash on your sofa when my life was falling apart), put cash in my tip jar, shared my music, attended my gigs, recommended me to others for music instruction, gotten me a gig, trusted me to teach a loved one or to play on your record, hired me to compose music for your business or to play music at your event or to produce your recording, collaborated with me (music, teaching, events, etc), and the like.

Saying "thank you" seem inadequate, to say the least. But being less than gifted as a wordsmith, its all I can find to say, I'm afraid.

But I can say: Its been a wonderful life and I look forward to every single day.

Thank all of you for making my dream a reality.