Wells Run Dry

As we are all learning just by observing our poor exploited world, we can’t keep taking and taking—not from the ecosystem, nor from other people or from ourselves. Things will run out. It has taken me a long time to learn this about myself, and is probably going to take me even longer to learn to avoid draining myself before I hit the wall. Today’s post is written to myself, as well as to you.

We need to learn about real rest, about stopping and allowing ourselves to refill our tanks and remember who we are. Without doing this, we will run out of energy and ideas. I know that for me, when I am running on empty I get very dispirited and feel like I will never have another creative idea again.

Today, I want to ask you to do something for yourself that allows you to rest (it can be a physical activity that allows for mental rest, and in fact that can often be the best type of rest). Stop thinking about trying to improve yourself or get to another place—in music or anything else—and just take a beat, allow yourself to just be. Don’t worry about all the stuff you need to do, just let yourself stop. If you have been driving yourself really hard, this is something that is going to take more than a day. I hope that you can try it today, and if it feels helpful I hope you will organize your time to incorporate this practice into your routine on a regular basis, while combining it with more thought about treading lighter on our earth, too.

Given the fact that this is a month of practice prompts, I would like for you to see if you can do some of this work while playing. As you know by now, for me that is often just playing long low tones. Whatever works for you as a resting place is what you should do today.

Thanks for sticking with me.

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