With the winding down of the year, there is a lot to look back on. This year has been everything I wanted and more when it comes to music. The band I play with, Chicken Coop Willaye, has never been happier. We've finally started to see dividends from all the work we've put in, including an increased amount of shows, increased pay for performances, and having fans. REAL FANS! People who came all the way out to the venue just to see us in a basement bar on a Thursday night….. well how about that. It really makes a man pause and think about what he's grateful for.
Its not all been roses and skipping hand in hand with opportunity though. No sir. We've put in a lot of work and arguments to get to where we are today. There has been a lot of growth within ourselves, without ourselves, and between ourselves that has made it happen. I, for one, started this year ROUGH. Barely holding myself together in my work. Not putting in the effort where it was needed. Trying to hide my problems under the rock of hobbies and opportunities. Opportunities wither and dry up if you don't plant them in good solid soil and tend them so they don't get crowded out by the opportunities that aren't fruitful. Or are distracting.
So keep tending the garden. Pull your weeds. Water them when it's dry. Take time to practice your craft and become efficient in the chores that make opportunity flourish.
But also… take time to rest and appreciate what you've built. What is a garden if you don't get to enjoy the crops of your labor or the dazzling bouquet of living color you've made? Busy season will come and call you to work again. You will fret, you will cry, you will strain. So rest. Rest and enjoy the progress you've made.
-Woodford Pines-