So people say. Or at least, some people do. It may be true, or it may not. Or it may be so in some circumstances, not in others. What I've found though, is allowing something to be done instead of perfect, allows me to be tremendously free when I'm creating, whether it's a song, a meal or a garden. If I let go of perfect, I can just get on with receiving and creating, and allowing the thing to breathe. Of course, I want things to be perfect, but sometimes, I'd rather just have them come to life.
The song in this video (which is in the episode Barefootin' ) was written and recorded one sunny Los Angeles morning in December after Jennifer's sister Kathy asked if I could write a song for their Mom (my mom-in-law) to cheer her up. I had so much fun making it, and knowing that I needed to get it done that day really helped me just dive in.
The same is true of this video. I just decided to do it after Mara said "We need a Blog post!" I probably should have rehearsed the song I haven't played in two years, and probably should have spent more time on planning and executing the video, but if I had - well, you probably wouldn't be reading this or hearing this song right now. I may just have stopped myself and never done it.
What does all this have to do with Looking In Breathing Out?
Well, although I've always kind of done this seat-of-the pants thing, recently, I've discovered other people advocating this approach too. (Almost) every morning, at breakfast, Jennifer and I read from some awareness-raising tome or other, and currently, as I write this, we're reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/. It's fun and fascinating, and talks about grabbing ideas as they come to us, before they move on to someone else. And about living an "enchanted life." (Who wouldn't want that?)
And there's this guy - Gregory Scott - who has a YouTube channel called Kush After Hours with UBK. Even though he's talking about music production techniques, and that may not be your thing, he's just great fun to watch and he has really interesting perspectives on Getting It Done, including in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pEvKxX_E8 where he talks about how, "uber alles", the groove is thing.
So, I hope you like the song, but even if you don't, and find yourself wishing that I had spent more time getting it right, I'm happy to share it, set it free, with all its flaws, because - and I'll quote another breakfast tome author here - TKV Desikachar, in his book What Are We Seeking? says, "Happiness is in the heart, not the mind." So, maybe this is what I mean, when I'm talking about getting it done vs. perfection, maybe offering up our heart is what I'm talking about, rather than agonizing and intellectualizing.
One final quote in musical form, might be from the 90's song by Deelite Groove Is In the Heart.
Cos it is!
Thank you for listening to our podcast. It's an honor and a privilege to create it, and to have the opportunity to do all these musical experiments as part of it.
See you on the next one!
Jonathan