It was a beautiful day and I took the opportunity to go and sit in Rittenhouse Square to enjoy the weather and people watch. Something that immediately stood out was a very similar sound I heard a few weeks prior as I walked through Central Park. It was musicians playing their music with out a care in the world, sometimes attracting a listener and sometimes not. They played with no concern about who heard their music but only with making it. Understanding the peace and joy which arises from playing your own music.
I can appreciate these performances because I am realizing the importance of creating and sharing your individual music. I am not only referring to the music that is produced through instruments and voices but the music that all men are endowed by their creator to create. I am referring to the music a painter makes when painting, the music Kevin Durant makes when playing basketball, the music a surgeon makes during a procedure, the music a mathematician makes when solving a complex problem, the music my sister makes when reporting a news story, the music I make when teaching, or the music my brother is learning to make as he produces beats.
We all have music to express, the problem lies when we aren’t like the musicians in the park and start to worry about the results of our music. We concentrate on who is listening? How much will I get paid? How will it be judged? This type of thinking doesn’t allow you to fully experience the peace that playing your music brings into being or even worse it can stop you from playing at all. I allowed this to happen to me as a teacher. I stopped enjoying the music I created in front of the classroom as I focused on how much money I was making and praise I should have been receiving. I stopped focusing on the joy which sharing my music offered me and overlooked that while performing I am 100 percent present in the moment and completely engulfed by the lesson and my interaction with students. That feeling is priceless and a direct result of playing my music. Which I have fallen back in love with doing.
Listening to the music in the park was a subtle reminder to continue playing my music, regardless of the instrument. It can be teaching, coaching or my new instrument my blog. This music though totally different brings me peace of mind as I write and compose the thoughts and ideas that are inside of me to share. I am playing my music not worried about who is listening, if I will get paid, or how will I be judged but simply as the musicians at the park do to experience the peace of playing their music.
PeaceofAB 
Awesome stuff AB. this type of writing that gives people a different perspective on their personal priorities, purpose on this earth, and the true importance of understanding/knowing self. It’s important for us to be able to “play our music” 100% all the time, because if we only do it when important people are watching, or when monetary gain is the goal, we may miss the opportunity to present our music to someone in need of it and going through a struggle our music can pull them through.
Keep it up bro.
Very enjoyable. Keep writing, I will be reading.