VISITING THE MUSE

A month has just flown by.

Oh, to be ten years old again when time moved so slowly.

No. Not really no, not at all. I’m happy where I am in life. I just wish I had more time for the things happening in my life.

Oh! I’m sorry; did you want a maraschino cherry on your vegan sundae there sir?

Another mint? It’s “waiferre theen!”

All right I’m not complaining; really, I’m not. I am pleasantly surprised at where the inspiration is coming from though.

Or am I?

Well, I’ll try to keep this short. First Point: When I was ten, my Mom brought back a pair of Bongos from Bermuda-I played them incessantly, ad dementias. Then I took recorder lessons (like most kids) and in Grade 7 ended up in the school band playing Alto Sax. Which was cool, but that was it for quite some time, nothing. Then about two years ago, after dating a Belly dancer I take up the Dumbek: a hand drum that just ROCKS MY WORLD!

It’s opening up new opportunities and the visceral thrill of physically making sounds on a musical instrument. This is so much better than bopping around, listening to canned music on an ipod or stereo.

As for recorded music, you’ll find yourself listening to new sounds, your ears will prick up a when you hear your instrument on the street emanating from a club playing live music, or in the soundtrack of the movie you’re watching in the theatre and the new cultures I’ve discovered? The Arabic, Middle-East experience, Cuba, Senegal; it goes on and on.

I’ve always enjoyed drawing. I’ve always had some sort of writing implement be it crayon, pencil or designer brush pen in hand. Scribbling, blackening pages. I also wrote a fair bit. I was often asked in class to read my efforts aloud, clacked away on the typewriter in the family office, kept sporadic journals, but the drawing always took centre stage.

Two weeks ago at a CANSCAIP meeting, I run into a published writer, we talk, exchange email addresses, I pitch an idea I’ve had for a YA novel for about seven years; she tells me it’s a great!

“Now start writing it!”

Boom! I’m banging out about 600 words a day and it ROCKS MY WORLD!

Lesson here: not all the stuff you put on the backburner is inconsequential, it can enrich your life like you never thought it would. The trick is to go with it, even if you have some reservations, it might even frighten you. That’s good, do it! Oh do it! It rewards faster than you think.

Now I haven’t given up on illustration, as a matter of fact I’ve got a fresh perspective on it. But the writing is far more exciting that I thought it would be. I have another dream on top of my illustration career to pursue.

Yeah, it’s good, I like where this is going.

“First you jump off the cliff; then you build the wings.”

-Ray Bradbury