Living The Material

I spend a lot of time picking things back up.

A text message. A request. A responsibility. A tiny voice calling my name from another room.

I start things.

I stop things.

I return to things.

I sit them down & pick them back up.

I thought progress was supposed to look smoother than this. I thought momentum looked like uninterrupted focus. I thought successful people moved from one accomplishment to the next without constantly being pulled in another direction.

Life has taught me otherwise.

Some of us are carrying dreams in one hand & responsibilities in the other.

Building while tending.

Creating while caring.

The discipline isn't found in never putting the thing down.

The discipline is in returning to it.

Returning to the idea.

Returning to the vision.

Returning to the work after life asks something of you.

Again.

& again.

& again.

People ask what's new.

Where's the music?

Where's the next post?

What have you been working on?

The questions always make me smile.

Most people count what leaves my hands.

Very few count what passes through them.

They see the song when it's released.

They see the post when it's published.

They see the finished thing.

I see everything it took to bring it into existence.

I haven't been absent.

I've been gathering stories.

I've been raising a daughter.

I've been tending to family.

I've been carrying responsibilities that don't fit inside a caption.

I've been collecting lessons.

I've been living the material.

The ideas still visit me.

The vision hasn't gone anywhere.

Everything I've sat down is still mine.

The ideas know where to find me.

& when it's time to share what's next, it won't arrive empty.

It will arrive carrying every lesson, every interruption, every sacrifice, every moment that pulled me away & gave me something worth saying.

What comes next will simply be the evidence.